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Peter Beck says that Rocketlab's Electron rockets work in the northern hemisphere too!

https://twitter.com/Peter_J_Beck/status/...2630743040

Work on Neutron is proceeding. They are currently doing cryo pressure tests on the tanks.

Neutron is Rocketlab's follow-on to their existing little Electron small-sat launcher. Neutron will be reusable, human-rated and smaller than Falcon9 but larger than Soyuz.

(Rocketlab photo)

Cryo pressure tests continue on Neutron's tanks. They fill the tank with liquid nitrogen and pressurize it to well beyond flight pressure to prove out the strength of the tank construction and design.
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(We remember SpaceX doing it in the early days of Starship, when several of the crudely welded steel tanks burst. Today Starbase has robots doing the welds and apart from new design changes (which happen continually at SpaceX and must be tested) only new ships' tanks are subjected to cryo, part of their acceptance process which they routinely pass. Just the other day they tested a new tank dome design all the way to failure at Masseys, to see what the new design would take.)

I don't know where Rocketlab's Neutron work is taking place. Rocketlab has an existing factory in Long Beach CA but I believe that they are building a new factory specifically for making Neutrons near NASA's Wallops Island launch site on Virginia's Delmarva peninsula.

I particularly like the Neutron tank's stylish jaunty hat!

(Rocketlab photo)

Rocketlab has completed this round of tank testing.

Here's a video of the tank saying "bring it on!"

https://twitter.com/RocketLab/status/170...7778853365

And here's the tank saying "Stop it! I can't take no more!!" then bursting as they intentionally overpressured it to determine what its limits are.

I still like its hat!

https://twitter.com/RocketLab/status/170...8856133014

(Nov 30, 2021 06:11 AM)Yazata Wrote: [ -> ]The Photon actually can go interplanetary and Rocketlab has plans to send a couple of them in company funded missions all the way to Venus, a planet that's a particular interest to Rocketlab founder Peter Beck. Mars gets all the attention because it's so Earthlike, but Venus is more mysterious (if hellish). The plan seems to be to drop small cubesat sized payloads into the Venusian atmosphere.

Rocketlab has released more information about their Venus mission. It's scheduled to launch on December 30, 2024 and will take 128 days to get to Venus. It proposes to release a small cubesat sized payload (labeled "probe" in the drawings below into Venus' atmosphere. The payload isn't expected to survive the temperatures and pressures on Venus' surface, but will collect data and radio it back as it descends through Venus' extraordinarily thick and hot atmosphere. They only propose to get 414 kb of data (not much) and I gather it will come from one instrument, a Nephelometer to measure particulates in the Venusian atmosphere.

Rocketlab has signed a big new contract with an unnamed US government customer (the Space Force? Some spy agency?) Potentially $515 million to design, build and operate 18 "space vehicles" for the customer. The fact they call them "space vehicles" rather than "satellites" suggests (to me, anyway) that they might be powered and maneuverable in orbit. They might conceivably be a follow on to Rocketlab's Photon orbital bus that they use to put small satellites into particular customer-desired orbits.

https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edg...231221.htm

"On December 21, 2023, Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (the “Company”), through its wholly owned subsidiary Rocket Lab National Security, entered into an agreement with a United States government customer (“Customer”) to design, manufacture, deliver, and operate 18 space vehicles. The contract with the Customer has a total value of $515 million, which includes a base amount of $489 million and incentives and options totaling $26 million. Work under the agreement will begin immediately with the delivery of the space vehicles to the Customer for launch slated for 2027, operation of the satellites through 2030, and an option to operate the satellites through 2033. The agreement contains customary default and termination provisions. In addition, either party may elect to terminate the agreement for convenience at any time as provided in the agreement, subject to certain termination conditions."