Countdown for taxi ride to space

There are few outward similarities between Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket, which is due to undertake its test flight later this year, and a space- bound taxi.

However, according to Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s chief executive, the 20 meter tall, one meter diameter Electron will provide customers with all the convenience of a taxi for their small satellites for the cost of the bus ticket they currently purchase.

Rocket Lab, which is based in New Zealand and will launch from there, is among companies seeking to offer owners of small satellites an alternative to their only current route to space — ride- sharing. Satellites launched on a ride-share basis are packed as secondary cargo.

Planet Labs, one small- satellite operator, lost 26 satellites when a rocket heading to the international space station exploded on launch last October.

Operators working on such services insist they will transform small-satellite operators’ prospects by placing their satellites more accurately than ride-share operators do. They will also launch when small- satellite groups are ready, rather than waiting for a big satellite to be finished.

Rocket Lab says it will charge $4.9 million to launch up to 100 kilograms to up to 500 kilometers above the earth — the sum that Mr. Beck says operators would pay for a ride-share service. Rocket Lab plans eventually to launch a rocket a week.

“When you’re trying to create a commercial company and having to wait for the option to have a piggyback, it’s really hard to build a commercial business around such uncertainty,” Mr. Beck says.