Rocket Lab, the small-satellite launcher based in Huntington Beach, plans to send spacecraft to orbit the moon and then even deeper into outer space.Â
The company told the International Astronautical Congress in Washington late last month that its new outer-space platform called Photon will be able to send small satellites into lunar orbit or conduct fly-bys for paying customers.
The small satellites in space will also help guide humans back to the moon, Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck told the Business Journal last month.
“Once you get beyond the reaches of ground support on Earth, intermediary satellites and spacecraft which support navigation and communication for those missions become really important, and that’s where mission partners like Rocket Lab have a vital role to play,” Beck said.
Rocket Lab said it will be using Photon to bring various orbits, including those around the moon, within reach for small satellites. The first Photon lunar mission could fly by late next year, deploying a customer’s spacecraft weighing up to about 66 pounds, according to news reports.
No prices were disclosed.
Even Further
“Rocket Lab has already proven the capability to successfully deploy small satellites more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) above the Earth, and I’m excited to fly even further and lay that infrastructure groundwork for deep space exploration with customers onboard Photon for future missions,” Beck told the Business Journal.
Beck said small satellites have communications and navigation equipment to support returning humans to the moon; other local companies involved in lunar work include Irvine’s Tyvak Corp.
Rocket Lab’s most recent mission, “As the Crow Flies,” was the company’s ninth Electron launch, deploying a payload to an altitude of more than 1,000 kilometers.
Complete Spacecraft
The Electron rocket is a fully carbon-composite launch vehicle tailored for small satellites, and the company is working on a plan to recover and reuse the first stage of the rockets.
Founded in 2006, Rocket Lab said its goal is to increase launches to once a week possibly as early as 2021.
The price per launch starts around $7.5 million; at the one-launch per week goal that would equate to nearly $400 million in revenue for the company on an annual basis—more than the company has raised in funding the past few years.
Since its first orbital launch in January last year, Rocket Lab has blasted 40 satellites into orbit on the Electron rocket.
The company boasts 500 employees companywide with about 100 of them in Huntington Beach.
