Talk:Rocket Lab
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New contract
Launches contracted for Moon Express: [1]. Cheers, BatteryIncluded (talk) 23:33, 1 October 2015 (UTC)
Sources for improving the article
Here are a bunch of sources, some of them quite good, for potentially improving the article. Cheers. N2e (talk) 16:10, 11 January 2016 (UTC)
- http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11473933, July 2015. Launch site selection article, with cgi design overview, and animated video of launch from a beach spit location. "[L]aunch pad half the size of a tennis court."
- http://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-selects-new-zealand-launch-site/, from Space News, July 2015. More informative article on launch site, etc.
- http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/greens-rocket-concerns-blasted-into-orbit-2015070211#axzz3ejE3xvpl, New Zealand Greens opposition.
- http://www.wired.com/2015/07/feds-big-problem-private-rocket-launches/, Wired, July 2015.
- http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-rocketlab-satellites-20150805-story.html, Aug 2015.
- http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/70995652/rocket-lab-satellite-launches-filling-up-fast, Aug 2015.
- http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1508/S00363/rocket-lab-considering-an-additonal-launch-site-in-wairoa.htm,
- http://www.nbr.co.nz/ask-peter-beck
- https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-39.035173,177.4180311,9z, Google map of the Wairoa location. Proposed launch site is not directly at Wairoa, but about 20 km to the east at Onenui Station, on the southern tip of Mahia peninsula, which has no launch overflight limitations to the east.
- http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/201767483/wairoa,-gateway-to-the-galaxy, Wairoa mayor interview
- https://www.sprsa.org/sites/default/files/conference-presentation/Schneider-Rocket%20Lab%20general%20introduction%20%28reduced%20video%29.pptx, June 2015 presentation from SPRSA conference.
- http://www.nanalyze.com/2015/09/rocket-lab-carbon-fiber-rockets-powered-by-3d-printing/, September 2015.
- http://www.geekwire.com/2015/moon-express-and-rocket-lab-make-deal-for-lunar-landings-in-2017/, Moon Express has apparently booked several launches related to their Lunar mission interests, in 2017.
- http://spaceref.biz/commercial-space/moon-express-launch-contract-to-be-verified-by-google-lunar-xprize.html
- http://www.parabolicarc.com/2015/10/04/updated-list-smallsat-launch-vehicles/, Oct 2015.
- http://www.rocketlabusa.com/about-us/propulsion/rutherford/, a primary source, but probably okay for specs on their rocket engine.
- http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/70716001/rocket-lab-signs-deal-to-work-with-nasa
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=yEOCq6KcwXo, Rocket Labs video of their team, October 2015.
US company
It is not clear in what way this is a US company or whether it always was a US company. The technical work all seems to be done in NZ. This needs to be explained.Royalcourtier (talk) 20:20, 27 September 2016 (UTC)
Further, the company was founded by a New Zealander (Peter Beck, still the CEO / CTO) in 2006 - <https://www.rocketlabusa.com>. It was incorporated and registered as a company in New Zealand on 29 June 2006 and is still registered as such, with the headquarters shown as being in Auckland, New Zealand - <https://www.companiesoffice.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/companies/1835428>.
Most of the backing companies are currently USA companies, and it has a base in the USA, but the company base remains in New Zealand, its first test launches are in New Zealand, and almost all of the senior staff listed on its website are New Zealanders - <https://www.rocketlabusa.com>. 121.75.117.10 (talk) 22:58, 25 May 2017 (UTC)mckee@paradise.net.nz 10:50, 26 May 2017 (UTC)
History, and Atea-1
The claim by this section that Rocket Lab Ltd. was not "the first private company in the Southern Hemisphere to reach space" because that could not by validated by telemetry downlink, is immaterial.
There was telemetry, but it was not a downlink - it went to a satellite, which is how the location of the payload dart's descent to the sea was determined. Cf. http://www.astronautix.com/a/atea-1.html, where one may read: "Payload recovery – A GPS transceiver used the Inmarsat B satellite constellation to communicate the launch vehicle"
It is this, as well as the known performance of the boost stage (which did have downlink telemetry) that permits deduction of the payload apogee being above the Karman line.
The entire tone of the article is deprecating in a manner which makes one wonder about the motives of such edits.