Rocket Lab's 'Electron' Marks First Orbital-Class Launch From a Private Pad

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Wiggum

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#214748 26-May-2017 12:11

Rocket Lab, a California-based spaceflight company with its roots in New Zealand, just launched its two-stage Electron rocket for the first time. The small launch vehicle successfully lifted off from Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula of New Zealand at 12:20 a.m. ET on Thursday May 25—4:20 p.m. New Zealand time. The successful liftoff marks the first time an orbital-class rocket has been launched from a private launch facility.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/news/a26638/rocket-lab-launches-electron-rocket-first-flight/?src=socialflowFB

Quiet an achievement yesterday for little NZ. Surprised there has not been much attention about this in the news or here on geekzone. What an achievement.

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Awrrr
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#1788697 26-May-2017 12:26

That is a very neat video. I guess most people just don't comprehend how significant this is. We live in a jaded society.

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Wiggum

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#1788706 26-May-2017 12:43

Rikkitic:

That is a very neat video. I guess most people just don't comprehend how significant this is. We live in a jaded society.

I guess people are too busy nit picking the US at the moment on Trump and all.

Yesterday it was Trump and his "unhappy" wife everyone was picking on. Today its that photo with the "unhappy" Pope. Hell who cares????

Modern media and the nasty liberal press of the US and NZ seem to think we all care about such garbage. Meanwhile, behind the scenes we have history being made. An excellent achievement here for both countries (NZ and the USA). Why don't the media focus on a stories like this? I only found out about this due to the US Popular Mechanics website that I follow. Anyway. Congrats to all Kiwis that were involved here.

Edit: And Californians too

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#1788708 26-May-2017 12:47

I prefer to keep the politics out of it. There are other threads for that. The launch was very cool and Rocket Lab deserves full praise. Also for putting much picked-on Wairoa on the map. That is also very cool.

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ockel

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#1788714 26-May-2017 12:55

The launch (and scrubbing of attempts on previous days) have been in print media every day.

There has been an article on the television news every night.

And the news websites (stuff, nzherald and even nbr I think) have also had articles. The NZ Herald had the launch posted at 4:35pm yesterday just 10 minutes after launch.

There has been plenty of media reporting.

There is even a new article with a view of the mission control team celebrating. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11863731

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Wiggum

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#1788716 26-May-2017 13:03

ockel:

The launch (and scrubbing of attempts on previous days) have been in print media every day.

There has been an article on the television news every night.

And the news websites (stuff, nzherald and even nbr I think) have also had articles. The NZ Herald had the launch posted at 4:35pm yesterday just 10 minutes after launch.

There has been plenty of media reporting.

There is even a new article with a view of the mission control team celebrating. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11863731

Thanks for the link. I'm not denying that. It just seems they dont publish this stuff on their main page. I read Stuff and nzherald online every day. Not once have I seen mention of it. Its there, but never on the main page. Surely this is newsworthy and more important than all the Trump garbage the media keep feeding us.

IMO this should qualified as breaking news. it was after all quiet an historic moment.

ockel

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#1788718 26-May-2017 13:09

Wiggum:

ockel:

The launch (and scrubbing of attempts on previous days) have been in print media every day.

There has been an article on the television news every night.

And the news websites (stuff, nzherald and even nbr I think) have also had articles. The NZ Herald had the launch posted at 4:35pm yesterday just 10 minutes after launch.

There has been plenty of media reporting.

There is even a new article with a view of the mission control team celebrating. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11863731

Thanks for the link. I'm not denying that. It just seems they dont publish this stuff on their main page. I read Stuff and nzherald online every day. Not once have I seen mention of it. Its there, but never on the main page. Surely this is newsworthy and more important than all the Trump garbage the media keep feeding us.

IMO this should qualified as breaking news. it was after all quiet an historic moment.

I think that it was a breaking news headline on nzherald. However there is the drawback of online news sites. Editors select the articles that they think you want to see, you have little or no scope for customising, and the focus is getting you to click so they have to get your attention "above the fold".

I think you really only get the tip of the iceberg and it requires significantly more effort to be informed relative to the print version. A one-line link vs the ability to scan +read/skip a print article.

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mattwnz

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#1788779 26-May-2017 14:36

Editors do have too much say IMO. Also papers will want stories on the homepage that get the most clicks. Business success stories don't really get as many clicks, as say a story on Pippas wedding, and we do have the tall poppy syndrome bad in nz.

I was also surprise at how little coverage it got in NZ.

ockel

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#1788787 26-May-2017 14:45

mattwnz:

Editors do have too much say IMO. Also papers will want stories on the homepage that get the most clicks. Business success stories don't really get as many clicks, as say a story on Pippas wedding, and we do have the tall poppy syndrome bad in nz.

I was also surprise at how little coverage it got in NZ.

At 50c per day for the e-edition of the NZHerald I find that I get good value out of the broad coverage without editors second guessing what I want to see.

BTW, OneNewsNow had 3 articles on the evening of the launch. And had a person on the ground covering the launch that aired that night, alas it only appeals to 600,000 people on a good day. Will be interesting to see if the launch made the top 10 watched clips on OneNewsNow for May.

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mattwnz

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#1788810 26-May-2017 15:41

ockel:

mattwnz:

Editors do have too much say IMO. Also papers will want stories on the homepage that get the most clicks. Business success stories don't really get as many clicks, as say a story on Pippas wedding, and we do have the tall poppy syndrome bad in nz.

I was also surprise at how little coverage it got in NZ.

At 50c per day for the e-edition of the NZHerald I find that I get good value out of the broad coverage without editors second guessing what I want to see.

BTW, OneNewsNow had 3 articles on the evening of the launch. And had a person on the ground covering the launch that aired that night, alas it only appeals to 600,000 people on a good day. Will be interesting to see if the launch made the top 10 watched clips on OneNewsNow for May.

One news was actually the first time I heard about the launch.

kiwifidget

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#1788882 26-May-2017 18:32

Back to the topic. I read that the launch was successful but the rocket failed to make orbit.

So where did it end up?

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Wiggum

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#1788897 26-May-2017 19:17

kiwifidget:

Back to the topic. I read that the launch was successful but the rocket failed to make orbit.

So where did it end up?

Thats a good point. I guess Rocketlab knows, but have not yet made that information public.

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afe66

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#1788919 26-May-2017 20:49

I wonder how does this compare with the efforts of North Korea trying to make a bolistic missile. Excluding the talk about warheads.

IE sounds like this rocket will reach orbits of 500km up. So once you are up there could you allow the world to move under you and come back down thousands of km later?

A.

Fred99

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#1789068 27-May-2017 10:49

afe66: I wonder how does this compare with the efforts of North Korea trying to make a bolistic missile. Excluding the talk about warheads.

IE sounds like this rocket will reach orbits of 500km up. So once you are up there could you allow the world to move under you and come back down thousands of km later?

A.

There are a couple of issues there. DPRK has put a satellite in low earth orbit, so they could deliver a payload limited by weight anywhere on the planet. Fortunately at this time, it's assumed and almost certain that weight limitation is much less than the weight of the smallest nuclear warhead they're able to produce, that (IIRC) limited by the amount and purity of "weapons grade" plutonium they can produce and refine - which is very difficult process. But unfortunately, they'll probably get there eventually. Disconcerting because IIRC payload capacity is several hundred kg, miniaturisation of nuclear weapons is possible down to a few kg. If they get to be able to achieve that, then they can launch solid fuel rockets with nuclear warheads.

The more recent missile tests are solid fuel rockets. The issue there is that solid fuel rockets can relatively easily be taken out of storage and launched from anywhere (they want to make them able to be submarine launched) quickly. Liquid fuelled rockets, then it takes time and equipment to fuel them and prepare them for launch, very hard to achieve undetected when probably there are many satellites flying over - if it came to war, then I expect they'd find many or most of their liquid fueled missiles targeted and destroyed before they could launch them.