Rocket Lab, the leading U.S. company in launching small rockets, is aiming to take a major step in the year ahead: Recovering and re-using the largest part of its Electron rocket.
If Rocket Lab's plan succeeds, it would become only the second private company to return an orbital-class rocket booster to land – only SpaceX has previously pulled off the feat.
SpaceX uses the engines on its rockets to slow down and control their descent, and Beck said Rocket Lab had to develop a different technology to make re-use feasible. A secret landing development team at Rocket Lab did take a "deep dive into propulsive landings," Beck said, but in the end decided against it.Beck called the technology an "aero thermal decelerator" – essentially using the atmosphere to slow down the rocket.
"Ever since we really started flying commercially – the vehicle's heavily instrumented – we have something like 15,000 channels of data on every flight," Beck said. Rocket Lab is preparing for its eighth total launch and Beck said that the tenth flight will see the company "rolling out some serious upgrades" to its Electron rocket. However, he declined to give his expected timeline for how long until the company's first full recovery of a rocket booster.was earmarked for this project, Beck wasn't sure how much has been used in total to develop this technology.
While SpaceX is the most widely-known rocket company in the industry, Rocket Lab is steadily carving out its place by launching small batches of satellites to specific orbits around the Earth. The company prefers not to be compared to SpaceX, although Beck did note its similar wide-eyed ambition for what's possible in rocketry.
"We don't see any impact on that whatsoever," Beck said. "Our customers don't want rideshare. If you think you have a dedicated launch vehicle and you're doing a rideshare then you're fooling yourself."
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