Rocket Lab Loses Seven Satellites After 'Something Went Wrong' (arstechnica.com) 33
An anonymous reader quotes Ars Technica:
On Sunday morning, local time in New Zealand, Rocket Lab launched its 13th mission. The booster's first stage performed normally, but just as the second stage neared an altitude of 200km, something went wrong and the vehicle was lost...
"We lost the flight late into the mission," said Peter Beck, the company's founder and chief executive, on Twitter. "I am incredibly sorry that we failed to deliver our customers satellites today. Rest assured we will find the issue, correct it and be back on the pad soon."
The mission, dubbed "Pics Or It Didn't Happen," carried 5 SuperDove satellites for the imaging company Planet, as well as commercial payloads both for Canon Electronics and In-Space Missions. "The In-Space team is absolutely gutted by this news," the company said after the loss. Its Faraday-1 spacecraft hosted multiple experiments within a 6U CubeSat. "Two years of hard work from an incredibly committed group of brilliant engineers up in smoke. It really was a very cool little spacecraft."
The article notes that since January of 2018, "the company had rattled off a string of 11 successful missions and emerged as a major player in the small satellite launch industry."
In a video statement on Twitter, company founder Peter Beck said solemnly that "Today's issue is a reminder that space flight can be very unforgiving."
"We lost the flight late into the mission," said Peter Beck, the company's founder and chief executive, on Twitter. "I am incredibly sorry that we failed to deliver our customers satellites today. Rest assured we will find the issue, correct it and be back on the pad soon."
The mission, dubbed "Pics Or It Didn't Happen," carried 5 SuperDove satellites for the imaging company Planet, as well as commercial payloads both for Canon Electronics and In-Space Missions. "The In-Space team is absolutely gutted by this news," the company said after the loss. Its Faraday-1 spacecraft hosted multiple experiments within a 6U CubeSat. "Two years of hard work from an incredibly committed group of brilliant engineers up in smoke. It really was a very cool little spacecraft."
The article notes that since January of 2018, "the company had rattled off a string of 11 successful missions and emerged as a major player in the small satellite launch industry."
In a video statement on Twitter, company founder Peter Beck said solemnly that "Today's issue is a reminder that space flight can be very unforgiving."
Space is hard (Score:2, Insightful)
There will be more crashes and problems with space launches and travel for generations to come.
Best wishes to the gang at RL. And thank god for insurance!
Re:Space is hard (Score:5, Funny)
I didn't realize god sold insurance, seems like a pretty big conflict of interest as he's not liable for his own acts.
Re: Space is hard (Score:2)
ðY
lol good one.
Re: Space is hard (Score:2)
I'm an atheist but that was funny.
Re: (Score:2)
> he's not liable for his own acts
I didn't know that god is a police officer.
Re: (Score:2)
> he's not liable for his own acts
I didn't know that god is a police officer.
The stories cast the god being as judge and jury and unconstrained ego. I'm not why that appeals to people.
Re: Space is hard (Score:1)
Apparently someone either thinks space is easy or doesn't wish RL well.
Kids today.
Re:Space is hard (Score:5, Interesting)
I was sad when I read about this this morning. The Rocketlab team has the same sort of innovative, move-fast spirit that SpaceX has, and if anyone out there is worthy to be a future competitor, IMHO, it's them. This comes at a tough time, too, as SpaceX's new "dedicated rideshare" programme (extremely low cost launches to a variety of orbits with a guaranteed flight, rather than being dependent on a primary payload like traditional rideshare) is a direct attack on the smallsat-launcher market.
That said... Rocketlab will survive, and thrive. They've more than proven that this rocket has great potential, so money shouldn't be lacking. And there are still plenty of smallsat launches that want a dedicated rocket for their mission (precise control of orbit, specific timing, no sharing with other payloads, etc).
Re: (Score:3)
Rocketlab is working on re-usability in any case, so I expect they'll eventually be able to compete on price. However, their CEO has said in a couple of interviews that cost just isn't an issue right now, they have more business than they can handle and re-usability is just to increase launch cadence. Seems like a lot of customers do care about that dedicated mission as you mention.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not sure reusability is enough; rideshare on a larger rocket is just fundamentally more cost effective. Historically, the main thing that kept payloads off of rideshare was that they'd be subject to the whims (and delays) of the primary payload, but the dedicated-rideshare launches have no primary. That said, a lower price due to reusability would certainly help shift more customers onto private launches, even if rideshare is cheaper. And as you note, it'd help them up the cadence.
Their reusability
Going forward (Score:1)
I would hope companies would wait before launching their satellite on an unproven Rickey.
However, if they got a great price on the launch and have great insurance to cover their costs on a failure, then maybe theyâ(TM)ll try again.
Re:Going forward (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Going forward (Score:5, Interesting)
In rocket science I'd say 10+ launches is well into established already. The Falcon Heavy got their military certification after just three launches. The SLS is still planning to launch crew on their second flight. I suspect your sig is very relevant here:
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
My guess is one faulty part or installation brought the mission down. This was not a violent failure, the rocket just lost engine power and stopped. Which means it's probably the QA department and not the design department that needs to get to work.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
I would hope companies would wait before launching their satellite on an unproven Rickey.
However, if they got a great price on the launch and have great insurance to cover their costs on a failure, then maybe they'll try again.
Space exploration, like most things in life, has a risk vs. reward equation. Obviously the risks are higher than other endeavors (in money and safety) but so are the rewards. And obviously first-flights of a new system have the highest risk.
The very first test-flight of the Space Shuttle was manned, because NASA considered humans to be an essential component of the STS. [nasa.gov] Fortunately that risk worked out. I'm not sure whether the spacecraft was insured in any way, but I recall a mention in the news about comm
So I guess (Score:3)
... there were no pics, then.
Kind of. (Score:2)
The pictures stopped coming, and orbit didn't happen.
Something happened. (Score:1)
Something happened
Was the launch run by Windows 10?
Probably tried to upgrade the rockets' OS during the flight and rebooted it.
Re: (Score:2)
'Something Went Wrong' , when put in quotes like that, sounds like a mission name for Rocket Lab.
They seem to be competing with SpaceX drone ships for wacky names.
Speaking of names, are the SpaceX engines (merlin, kestrel etc) a reference to the old Rolls Royce aircraft engines, or is this a coincidence?
What we know - (Score:5, Informative)
The rocket has battery-powered electric pumps feeding fuel into the combustion chamber. The second stage carries two sets of batteries, and half way through it 'hot swaps' from one set to the other, then jettisons the depleted pack.
About 30 seconds before that hot swap should have happened. the rocket nozzle seemed to cool, dimming slightly; the video of the rocket then froze and never returned; the telemetry display showed that the rocket was no longer accelerating. This is how it remained - the rocket altitude decreasing and the rocket accelerating slowly under gravity, until about 160km when telemetry display stopped. After the video had frozen and acceleration stopped, there was a call out of 'feed battery discharge normal, reaching hotswap roughly 30 seconds'.
My conclusion - something went wrong setting up for hotswap. Power was lost, the turbopumps spun down and the engine stopped. That 'feed battery' call is confusing - did it mean that the battery current was normal, meaning the pumps were working still? - if so, it would mean that they couldn't restart it.
Hold fire - Scott Manley has just posted his video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Let's see how much I have got right.
Re:What we know - (Score:5, Funny)
My guess: Scott Manley will make at least one "the front fell off" reference. Now to go watch.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
This needs to be translated into XKCD "up-goer-speak".
Ha Ha (Score:2)
Next time "Pics XOR it didn't happen"... (Score:4, Funny)
Need Another Seven Satelites (Score:1)
I was watching their live stream ... (Score:2)
Re: I was watching their live stream ... (Score:1)
Can we short this company's stock? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
No, Rocket Lab is privately funded.