Rocket Lab Electron

Design

The rocket's two stages share a diameter of 1.2 m and use RP-1/LOX propellant, with the main body constructed from lightweight carbon composite material. Both stages employ the Rutherford rocket engine, which is the first electric-pump-fed engine to power an orbital rocket; the electric pumps are powered by lithium-polymer batteries. The second stage uses three batteries that are hot swapped, with two jettisoned once depleted to reduce mass. The first stage has nine Rutherford engines delivering 162 kN of thrust, while the second stage uses a vacuum-optimized version producing 22 kN of thrust.

Almost all engine parts are 3D printed to save time and money in manufacturing. An optional third stage, called the kick stage, is equipped with a single Curie engine capable of multiple burns and uses an unspecified green bipropellant; it was first used on Electron's second flight and can transport up to 150 kg of payload. A derivative spacecraft of the kick stage, Photon, is intended for lunar and interplanetary missions and can deliver up to 30 kg into lunar orbit.

The payload fairing is 2.5 m in length with a 1.2 m diameter and a total mass of 44 kg. Manufacturing the carbon composite components traditionally required 400 hours of hand labor, but in late 2019 Rocket Lab introduced a robotic manufacturing capability nicknamed Rosie the Robot that produces all composite parts for an Electron in 12 hours, with the company objective of reducing the overall manufacturing cycle to seven days. Rutherford engine production has used additive manufacturing since the earliest flights, allowing production to scale by increasing the number and capability of 3D printers.

Applications

Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket lifts payloads of 200 to 300 kilograms into a 500-kilometer Sun-synchronous orbit, a sweet spot for CubeSats and other small satellites. In October 2018, the company opened a factory that, by its own estimate, can turn out more than 50 rockets each year. Customers can have their spacecraft sealed inside Rocket Lab’s payload fairings, which are designed for quick attachment just before liftoff. A launch starts at roughly $7.5 million, or about $25,000 per kilogram, making it the only dedicated small-satellite service at that price.

Moon Express once booked multiple Electron launches for lunar landers aimed at the Google Lunar X Prize, but the competition ended without a winner, and all those launches were canceled before February 2020. In April 2023, Rocket Lab unveiled HASTE, an Electron variant for suborbital hypersonic tests, capable of carrying 700 kilograms. Its first mission, DYNAMO-A, lifted off on June 18, 2023, from Launch Complex-2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, with Dynetics using the rocket for test vehicles under the MACH-TB program.

Launch sites

The rocket launches from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand, a remote and sparsely populated location intended to enable high launch frequency. The rocket and launch pad were both privately funded, the first time all parts of an orbital launch operation were entirely run by the private sector. In October 2018, Rocket Lab selected Virginia Space's Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Flight Facility as its secondary U.S. launch site, called Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2, which is expected to serve government customers; the first launch from LC-2 occurred on 24 January 2023. The UK Space Agency is giving Highlands and Islands Enterprise the opportunity to develop an Electron launch pad on the A' Mhòine Peninsula in Sutherland, Scotland, to be named Sutherland spaceport.

Launch history

The Electron has flown 94 times since May 2017, with 90 successes and 4 failures, including 9 suborbital flights from the HASTE program. The initial test flight, It's a Test, failed due to a ground communication equipment glitch, but subsequent missions Still Testing, It's Business Time, and This One's For Pickering delivered multiple small payloads to low Earth orbit. In August 2019, Look Ma, No Hands successfully delivered four satellites to orbit, and in October 2019, As the Crow Flies launched from Māhia LC-1.

The thirteenth launch failed in July 2020, and the twentieth launch failed in May 2021. Notable missions include ELaNa-19 (Electron's first NASA-sponsored launch), NROL-151 (first NRO-sponsored launch), Return to Sender (first ocean recovery of the first stage), It's a little Chile up here (first Space Test Program launch), CAPSTONE (first launch to the Moon), and Virginia is for Launch Lovers (first launch from Launch Complex 2).