On Rocket Lab’s 40th Electron rocket launch, the company successfully re-debuted the Rutherford engine, but this time it was flight-proven. After a last-minute change, Capella Space’s latest satellite was deployed into orbit using a recoverable variant of the Electron with one of its nine first-stage engines being reused from a previous mission.
Rocket Lab reflies first Rutherford engine
At 7:45 P.M. ET on August 24, a Rocket Lab Electron rocket lifted off from LC-1B at the company’s launch site in New Zealand. Onboard was one of Capella Space’s latest generation synthetic aperture radar satellites. The launch was a resounding success for Capella, getting its payload deployed into a low Earth orbit about an hour later.
However, the show stealer of this mission, as these Capella missions for Rocket Lab are turning into Starlink missions for SpaceX, was the added flight-proven Rutherford engine on the first stage. One of Electron’s nine electrically powered booster engines was not brand new like we’ve always seen but had already flown to space and was recovered just over a year ago.
This Rutherford engine flew on the mission “There And Back Again,” where a reusable Electron deployed 34 satellites into a sun-synchronous orbit. If you don’t know, Rocket sometimes flies its Electron in an expendable format and sometimes in a reusable format. The expendable booster is all black with white accents and the reusable booster is a more reflective metallic color with red accents.
Capella’s mission was originally slated to be flown on an expendable booster but after an issue was found on the first stage, Rocket Lab was able to quickly switch the payload onto its next booster ready to fly, which was in a reusable configuration. This configuration just so happened to also have Rocket Lab’s first reflow engine and to our knowledge its first piece of reflown hardware at all.
According to Rocket Lab’s CEO, Peter Beck, splashing these boosters down in the ocean and fishing them out seems to be working. There were no known issues on this flight related to the engine and Beck states in a post on the social media platform formally known as Twitter, that a booster with a full set of nine flight-proven engines is in the cards for the future.
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How far behind is Rocket Lab to SpaceX?
With all this success coming from Rocket Lab, how far behind are they from SpaceX? It’s the obvious question since these two are really the only ones doing this at the moment. However, they are on pretty different levels. Just because Electron will start reflying some engines doesn’t mean SpaceX is done for.
SpaceX is not just reflying engines but the whole booster, some in the mid-teens. The company has also been retrieving and reusing the payload fairings for a while now. Both of these things Rocket Lab will do, alongside competing directly with the Falcon 9 on mission types and price.
It’s unknown if the Electron will get to full booster reusability. Rocket Lab is taking a step-by-step approach and they could reach a point where developing a part to be reusable isn’t worth it and stop. It’s important to remember that the Electron was not designed to be reusable in any way.
Now what is being designed to be reusable from the start is Rocket Lab’s next launcher, Neutron. With a completely new design, Neutron is supposed to launch the majority of payload to space while having a reusable first stage and fairings. This rocket is what will bring Rocket Lab directly up against SpaceX in the space launch market.
The first launch of Rocket Lab’s Neutron rocket is expected in 2024.
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