Rocket Lab : Ātea-2 Suborbital Rocket Launch

[uncleezra1]

Why wasn't this covered on our media?? Never mind, I know why........

They just don't care and saw no commercial advantage to breaking the story. They just missed the next great technological advance for our world - becoming a true space-faring civilization.

[microwizard]

It is great that NZ can do this without spending the billions, it took us (USA) to do the same thing.

[NZRocketBoyz]

Have you thought about ramjet boosters? Great work!!!!

[MOUNTAINBANSHEE1]

I know why you haven't done this yet but when will you put up a satellite into orbit ?

[hamstanz]

Why does it say atea 1 on the side ?

[Kiwifrank]

On a more positive note; you guys rock! That was a fabo effort and you definitely deserve the next round at the pub.

[Djinnjaha]

Congratulations on the successful launch and incident-free flight of Ātea-1 today!

Best wishes for the future of your venture.

[musicman53]

This is the first rocket program in the southern hemisphere. Rocket Lab have developed a whole lot of new composite components, fuel and coatings and are getting aerospace enquiries from around the world. They have the whole southern hemisphere sounding rocket market to themselves, plus a lot of interest from the northern hemisphere, their costs are so radically lower. Very clever stuff. Watch Peter Beck's talk on Youtube.

[musicman53]

The launch is Sat morning 30th Nov at 6am, weather dependent.. This thing hits mach 1 (1200 km/hr) in 3.2 secs at 538m altitude meaning it breaks the sound barrier then! The sonic boom will be heard by those on the ground about 2 seconds later, or 5 secs into the flight. So wish I was there!!

[Atevra]

Musicman53: the sonic boom travels in the same direction as the rocket. In this case nobody heard anything.

[mrbobwang]

it's pretty impressive, when's the launch?

[musicman53]

I modelled the trajectory, and its pretty impressive - the engines burn for 14.5 secs by which time it is doing 6950 km/h or mach 5.85 and at 12.5 kms altitude. It then coasts to 119 kms and returns, spending about 270 secs or 4.5 mins in zero gravity before air drag kicks back in. Darn I want to see this thing take off!! It reaches 100m in 1.4 secs and 1 km in 4.4 secs. I calculated peak g's at about 20, which seems a bit high according to their web site.

[BLUFISH61]

The Silver Fern - on a black rocket - in space - that's some real NZ history hap'n there - Good Luck with the launch - Fish in Space.

[thedavidwilson]

Seems to be a sounding rocket;i.e. a large model rocket. You can buy these on the market today for $10k's-$100k's and they are routinely used by many countries for weather observations.

Congratulations on reinventing the wheel!

[Mekbuda01]

If you were to read up on this rocket mate, you'd find it uses far less fuel and is far less environmentally damaging than those currently in use. Good on the Kiwis for this great initiative.

[nicksynnz]

I dont think it is designed for people just perhaps getting into orbit would be a great idea. Getting people into space is easy but getting a small rocket into orbit is a thousand times harder.

[nicksynnz]

Great....stuff I will support you all the way.

[z91374]

i hope they pull it off

[redpictures]

Wheres it at, haven't heard anything for a while now?

[atreewithnolife]

wow ! I just cant wait! keep watcching this SPACE!!kiwis can do it ,wish i was part of it, all the best guys ,were right there with ya.

[onosendaiAAB]

Nice video.

Good luck guys!

[Kiwicart]

When do we get to strap some seats onto that thing? :)

[Btangbtang]

One small step for Rocketlab, one giant leap for Kiwikind!

Go the Rocketman!!!

[tomfog2]

Excellent. As 'The Press' said Rocketlab are "visionaries in the spirit of Richard Pearse and Jean Batten". Great to see the spirit of adventure alive and well and living in New Zealand.

[DavidTirno]

Well done Project: Mission from David ;) to Hayden & Wiremu my team mates for a fantastic job of the animation. Something we should be proud of :). Good luck Mark and Peter! All the best for your project, website looks cool! ^^

[callanzz]

Brilliant stuff. Good luck guys. People interested in private space ventures should check out; dubdubdub dot bigelowaerospace dot com, for a bit of inspiration. lets hope we see some real progress in the private space exploration industry soon.