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      In-space manufacturing startup aces pharma experiment in orbit

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Saturday, 8 July, 2023 - 00:20

    Varda Space's first "Winnebago" spacecraft, called W-Series 1, before its launch June 12.

    Enlarge / Varda Space's first "Winnebago" spacecraft, called W-Series 1, before its launch June 12. (credit: Rocket Lab )

    The co-founder of California-based startup Varda Space Industries says his company’s first space mission—a miniature lab that has grown crystals of the drug ritonavir in orbit—is on track to end in the coming weeks with a first-of-its-kind re-entry and landing in Utah.

    Varda’s spacecraft launched June 12 as part of a rideshare mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, then completed several weeks of checkouts before starting a 27-hour drug-manufacturing experiment last week. When ground controllers gave the go-ahead, the mini-lab began growing crystals of ritonavir, a drug commonly used to treat HIV.

    The experiment’s 27-hour run was completed on June 30, and data downlinked from the spacecraft showed everything went well.

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      Rocket Lab hitting its stride with high cadence, new venture for Electron

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 2 May, 2023 - 16:18

    An Electron rocket launches the "There and Back Again" mission in 2022.

    Enlarge / An Electron rocket launches the "There and Back Again" mission in 2022. (credit: Rocket Lab)

    Life is pretty good right now for Rocket Lab and its founder, Peter Beck.

    With a total of nine launches last year and as many as 15 planned for 2023, Rocket Lab now flies more boosters than any other company in the world not named SpaceX. In recent years, Rocket Lab's cadence has surpassed United Launch Alliance, Arianespace, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and other major players.

    This year, Rocket Lab may even launch as many boosters as Russia does, something that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago.

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      Rocket Lab va tenter de réutiliser son moteur-fusée imprimé en 3D

      news.movim.eu / JournalDuGeek · Friday, 21 April, 2023 - 07:00

    rla-158x105.jpg Le moteur Rutherford de Rocket Lab

    Pour l'instant, aucun moteur-fusée produit grâce à cette technologie n'a encore volé à deux reprises.

    Rocket Lab va tenter de réutiliser son moteur-fusée imprimé en 3D

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      Rocket Lab’s first US launch: Big for the company and the site

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 25 January, 2023 - 21:01 · 1 minute

    Rocket Lab’s first US launch: Big for the company and the site

    Enlarge

    Off in the southwest, the last colors of sunset lit up the rim of the sky, as a crescent Moon and two planets lined up above. It was a gorgeous scene, but one that everyone was ignoring. Instead, all eyes were focused on a bright patch of artificial light on a barrier island a couple of miles away. The lights there were focused on a small, slender needle—small enough to be hauled to the launch pad by a pickup truck.

    For years, the Electron rocket and the company behind it had been stuck in limbo at the Virginia launch site, waiting on various approvals—for regulatory agencies to share enough paperwork with each other to convince everyone that the launch was safe. Then weather and the end-of-year holidays kept pushing the launch back. But on Tuesday, everything went as smoothly as it is possible to imagine, and the Electron shot to orbit almost as soon as the launch window opened.

    The launch is critical for Rocket Lab, which in some ways invested the future of the company in its Virginia operations. But it's also critical for the launch site, which is billed as a spaceport but hasn't seen much traffic leaving Earth.

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      Rocket Lab set to try its first US-based launch again

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 24 January, 2023 - 15:59 · 1 minute

    A previous launch of the Electron from New Zealand.

    Enlarge / A previous launch of the Electron from New Zealand. (credit: Rocket Lab)

    On Tuesday, Rocket Lab will try again to send its first payloads to orbit from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) in Virginia. With clear skies and a launch window that opens after sunset, the launch has the potential to be visible on most of the Eastern Seaboard and as far west as Ohio.

    While Rocket Lab's Electron launch vehicle has a solid track record of launches from New Zealand, the use of Virginia would represent a big step forward for both the company and MARS itself. Having a US-based launch site allows the company to reach trajectories that aren't available from New Zealand and opens up opportunities for US government work, some of which requires launches from within the country.

    For MARS, which is based at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Rocket Lab would represent its second major commercial customer. NASA operates small sounding rockets from the site, and Orbital ATK has flown resupply missions to the International Space Station from there. But the Electron is a small launch vehicle that can allow a rapid cadence of launches and could boost the traffic from MARS considerably. Perhaps more significantly, Rocket Lab is using Wallops for the development of its larger reusable Neutron rocket, which would both launch and land at MARS.

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      Rocket Lab échoue à attraper sa fusée avec un hélicoptère

      news.movim.eu / Numerama · Friday, 4 November, 2022 - 18:38

    La tentative planifiée par Rocket Lab est littéralement tombée à l'eau. L'hélicoptère n'a pas été en mesure d'attraper au vol le premier étage de la fusée Électron. [Lire la suite]

    Abonnez-vous aux newsletters Numerama pour recevoir l’essentiel de l’actualité https://www.numerama.com/newsletter/

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      Suivez en direct la capture d’une fusée par un hélicoptère

      news.movim.eu / Numerama · Friday, 4 November, 2022 - 17:12

    hélicoptère Rocket Lab

    Un hélicoptère doit tenter d'attraper une fusée en plein vol, à son retour de mission. L'opération peut être suivie en direct. [Lire la suite]

    Abonnez-vous aux newsletters Numerama pour recevoir l’essentiel de l’actualité https://www.numerama.com/newsletter/

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      Attraper une fusée en plein vol avec un hélico : le défi du jour de Rocket Lab

      news.movim.eu / Numerama · Friday, 4 November, 2022 - 09:09

    Sikorsky hélicoptère

    La société Rocket Lab retente sa chance avec son opération de capture d'une fusée de retour dans l'espace, grâce à un hélicoptère. L'essai est fixé au 4 novembre en fin de journée. [Lire la suite]

    Abonnez-vous aux newsletters Numerama pour recevoir l’essentiel de l’actualité https://www.numerama.com/newsletter/

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      Rocket Lab will self-fund a mission to search for life in the clouds of Venus

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 17 August, 2022 - 13:09

    An artist's impression of Rocket Lab's proposed mission to Venus.

    Enlarge / An artist's impression of Rocket Lab's proposed mission to Venus. (credit: MDPI Aerospace/Rocket Lab)

    Never let it be said that Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck lacks a flamboyant streak.

    Although his Electron launch vehicle is one of the smallest orbital rockets in the world, Beck gleans every bit of performance from the booster he can. On just the rocket's second launch, in January 2018, he added a disco-ball like geodesic sphere called "Humanity Star" to give humans a small and bright shining object to, however briefly, gaze upon in the night sky.

    "The whole point of the program is to get everybody looking up at the star, but also past the star into the Universe, and reflect about the fact that we’re one species, on one planet," he said at the time.

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