Rocket Lab

Catalog — Rockets

• 2017

  Electron

  Electron is a two-stage small orbital launch vehicle developed by Rocket Lab, an aerospace manufacturer and launch service provider with roots in both New Zealand and the United States. It stands 18 m tall, measures 1.2 m in diameter and weighs about 13 tonnes at liftoff; its main airframe is built from lightweight carbon composite. Aimed squarely at the commercial small-satellite market, it is the third most launched small-lift launch vehicle in history. Its defining technical feature is the Rutherford engine, the first electric-pump-fed engine to power an orbital-class rocket: conventional turbopumps give way to electric pumps fed by lithium-polymer batteries, and almost every engine part is 3D printed. Nine Rutherfords power the first stage and a single vacuum-optimised unit powers the second, both burning RP-1 and liquid oxygen. An optional third stage, the kick stage, adds a restartable Curie engine for orbit circularisation; the Photon spacecraft is derived from that same hardware. Payload capacity grew from the original 225 kg to 300 kg in low Earth orbit, and from 150 kg to 200 kg in Sun-synchronous orbit, largely thanks to battery improvements. The starting price is around US$7.5 million per launch. Electron flies from Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand's Māhia Peninsula and from Launch Complex 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia. Although designed as an expendable vehicle, Rocket Lab recovered the first stage twice and reflew a Rutherford engine, though it eventually abandoned the idea of catching the booster in mid-air.