Rocket Lab to re-fly first flight-proven engine later this year

Rocket Lab announced Wednesday that they would take another big step in reusability, one of their most important, to re-fly its first flight-proven engine. The flight is guessed to take place later this year.

First flight-proven engine to reenter supply stock

In a press release, Rocket Lab announced that it would attempt to launch an Electron rocket with one flight-proven Rutherford engine on the first stage. This will be a first for the company and a big move further toward its goal of making its Electron rocket reusable.

The engine passed all acceptance testing for it to return to the supply stock in the hope to chosen for a mission this year. Electron’s first stage has nine total of these 3D printed engines installed, and together give it the ability to launch up to 300 kg into low Earth orbit or serve as a hypersonic test bed for the Department of Defense.

Since 2019, Rocket Lab has been working towards a method to turn its expendable carbon fiber rocket reusable. The reason was less for lowering costs like SpaceX but with the hope to increase its flight cadence. The biggest bottleneck, it seems, for Rocket Lab launches has been the production of its Electron rocket, so throwing away fewer parts might be critical.

“Electron is already an established workhorse rocket that has been delivering frequent and reliable access to orbit for more than five years. By evolving it into a reusable launch vehicle we plan to further increase our already steadily rising launch cadence, offering more launch availability to our customers at a time when space access is severely constrained globally,” Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said.”

The company began with the plan to catch boosters out of the air using a helicopter. However, Rocket Lab is moving away with that method as it had too many weather constraints and operating costs. All of the successful recoveries of its Electron boosters have come from fishing it out of the ocean with contracted ships. A plan that will now be the primary method for Rocket Lab moving forward.

This is the first of many steps, with the final one being an entire re-flight of one of its boosters. The company is already working toward that goal to take place by the end of the year, hopefully.

An exciting time that will be for Rocket Lab making only one of two companies flying flight-proven hardware to space.