Small rockets with payloads taking off

NEW YORK: In mid-November, a company called Rocket Lab will try to send six small satellites into orbit around Earth – a fairly banal undertaking, save for the size of the launch rocket.

It is only 17m-tall and 1.2m in diameter. And if all goes well, the US company will send up more than one of its Electron rockets every month in 2019.

Rocket Lab, which was created in 2006, completed a successful test flight in January and is expected to be the first of a new generation of companies to declare itself operational in the so-called “small launch industry”.

Barring a mishap, or another delay after a months-long technical setback, the rocket will blast off from the world’s first private orbital launch range in Mahia, New Zealand.

Like Rocket Lab, dozens of start-up companies are developing rockets adapted to send small, micro or nanosatellites – which weigh anything from a few kilos to a few hundred kilos – into space.

It’s a whole new chapter for the “New Space Race”, the latest industry revolution begun about a decade ago and based on private innovation – especially in the United States.

Rocket Lab’s creation has a black carbon composite fuselage with “Electron” emblazoned on the side in white lettering.

Its engine is produced by a 3D printer in California, a move that helped cut costs, the company’s chief financial officer Adam Spice said. — AFP

AFP Countdown: The Electron rocket at Rocket Lab in Mahia, New Zealand. Launching from New Zealand also has its advantages over traditional sites in Florida or California: there are not nearly as many planes in the air.