Electron version
Electron Electron with kick stage
Electron with its optional third stage, the kick stage, powered by a single restartable, 3D-printed Curie engine. It circularises orbits, changes planes and drops payloads onto separate trajectories, and can carry up to 150 kg. It first flew on the rocket's second mission, on 21 January 2018.
- January 21, 2018
- First launch
- 150 kg
- LEO capacity
- No
- Reusable
History
What it adds
A second stage that burns once leaves its passenger in an elliptical orbit that is rarely the one the customer wanted. The kick stage covers that last leg: a small module with a Curie engine burning a "green" bipropellant, able to light several times, which separates and manoeuvres to the precise orbit before releasing the payload. On "Still Testing", 21 January 2018, it placed two Lemur-2 satellites into a circular 500 km orbit — and its existence was only announced after the launch.
Orbits to order
With this stage a small-satellite customer stops being hostage to the primary payload's orbital plane. On "As the Crow Flies" in October 2019 the kick stage was deployed alongside a small satellite into a 400 km parking orbit; on the first TROPICS mission the second stage completed the insertion and the kick stage was saved for the plane change to the inclination NASA had asked for.
Later versions
An upgraded bipropellant variant lifted the Palisade technology demonstrator to a circular 1200 km orbit and then deorbited itself, a way of leaving nothing behind in a high orbit. The same design was the starting point for Photon, the satellite platform Rocket Lab uses for lunar and interplanetary missions.