Rocket Lab gave us exclusive access to its 50th Electron rocket launch. This episode takes you inside Mission Control, and Peter Beck's mind, for the milestone countdown.
Elon Musk might dream of going to Mars, but two spacecraft made by Sir Peter Beck’s Rocket Lab will beat him to the Red Planet - or at least its orbit.
The Kiwi-American firm says it has now completed integration and testing for “Blue” and “Gold” - thetwo identical, Rocket Lab designed and built spacecraft that will circle Mars, studying its atmosphere for Nasa’s “Escapade” mission, which will be managed by the University of California Berkeley’s Space Science Laboratory.
An artist's impression of Rocket Lab's "Blue" and "Gold" spacecraft in orbit around Mars. Photo / Rocket Lab
The twin spacecraft are ready for launch.
Unlike most space systems built by Rocket Lab, Blue and Gold will be launched into space by a rival: a New Glenn rocket made by the Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin.
The actual "Blue" and "Gold" - Rocket Lab's identical twin spacecraft for Nasa's "Escapade" mission to Martian orbit, pictured at the Kiwi-American firm's Long Beach, California plan. Photo / Rocket Lab
Launch, from Cape Canaveral, is scheduled for October.
The two 90kg spacecraft should reach Mars in September 2025, a mission that will see them orbit the Red Planet until March 2027.
Sensors on the satellites, made at Rocket Lab’s Spacecraft Production Complex and headquarters in Long Beach, California, will access how the solar wind interacts with Mars’ magnetic environment and how this interaction drives the planet’s atmospheric escape.
Rocket Lab first announced its Mars contract win in mid-2021, with a target mission date of 2024. Unusually for the aerospace industry, the timeline is still on track.
The firm did not put a price tag on its Mars contract (the total Escapade budget has been estimated at US$79m, including US$55m for the New Glenn launch) or its other interplanetary venture announced around the same time: Its mission to Venus, a passion project of Sir Peter’s that will search for phosphine in the planet’s atmosphere, a possible indicator of organic matter. That is, life in the clouds of Venus.
More details on both missions are expected on Rocket Lab’s earnings call Friday week.
Elon eyes Aussie
Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is considering landing and recovering its rockets off the coast of Australia, according to an AAP report.
Since a Starship rocket made a controlled splashdown for the first time in June in the Indian Ocean, SpaceX has been eager to expand its testing campaign. Successful landings and recovery of the boosters afterwards are important elements of the speedy development of the giant and reusable rocket designed to launch satellites to orbit and land astronauts on the moon.
The plan would be to launch Starship from a SpaceX facility in Texas, land it in the sea off Australia’s coast and recover it on Australian territory. Getting permission to do so would require loosening US export controls on sophisticated space technologies bound for Australia, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, AAP says.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
