Electron

Small liquid fuel (LOX) rocket developed by Rocket Lab (or RocketLab), a New Zealand / US company.

Structure is 20m length and 1.2m diameter in carbon-composite. First stage has 146.6 kN thrust. Can carry 225 kg in LEO and 100 kg in sun-synchronous 500km orbit.

Launch site was initially located in Onenui Station, North Island in New Zealand. In 2020 it will also launch from Wallops Island, VA, USA

Rocket Lab began development on the world's first 3D printed, electric turbo-pump fed engine in 2013. Rutherford engines are used as both a first stage and as a second stage engine, with sea level versions on Electron's first stage producing 24 kN (5,500 lbf) of thrust and has a specific impulse of 311 s (3.05 km/s), while the vacuum optimised version operating on Electron's second stage produces a max thrust of 24 kN (5,500 lbf) of thrust and has a specific impulse of 343 s (3.36 km/s). There are nine Rutherford engines on Electron's first stage and a single vacuum optimised version on the second stage. Rutherford engines are manufactured at Rocket Lab's headquarters in Huntington Beach, California, USA. They are shipped to Rocket Lab's New Zealand facilities for testing before integration with the Electron launch vehicle and eventual launch from Rocket Lab's private orbital launch facility, Launch Complex-1, on the Mahia Peninsula.

The company has a plan to reuse the first stage. That would require to recover the first stage in the ocean at first and later to capture it in mid-air by helicopter.

The rocket was certified by NASA as Category 1 in March 2020, and was granted an FAA launch operator licence in Sep 2020 from Wallops Island.

In mid-2020 the performance of the rocket was enhanced to 300 kg in LEO and 200 kg in 500 km SSO.

Launch cost: less than $5 million

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Electron launches

#	Launch id	Payload	Launch Date	Site	Type	Status/Comment (orbit in perigee x apogee x inclination x period)
1	n/a		25 May 2017	O		didn't reach orbit
2	18010	A: Dove Pioneer C: Lemur 2-Marshall E: Lemur-Tallhamn-ATC F: Humanity Star	21 Jan 2018 at 01:45 UT	O		A third stage fired to deliver the two Lemur in a circular 500km orbit 488 x 529 km x 82.9°
3	18088	A: Cicero 10 C: Nabeo 1~ drag sail attached to kick stage D: Irvine 1 E: Proxima 1 F: Lemur 2 Zupanski G: Proxima 2 H: Lemur 2 Chanusiak	11 Nov 2018 at 03:50 UT	O		495 x 516 km x 85°
4	18104	A: Aerocube 11A (Tomsat R3) B: Shields D: STF E: Albus F: Ceres~ G: Chomptt H: Polysat CP11 (ISX) J: Davinci~ K: Cubesail L: NMTsat M: Goergen* N: Aerocube 11B (Tomsat Eaglescout) P: Rsat P	16 Dec 2018 at 06:33 UT	O		total payload mass: 78 kg
5	19016	R3D2	28 Mar 2019 at 23:27 UT	O		410 x 428 km x 39.5°
6	19026	A: Afotec 1 B: Sparc 1 E: Harbinger	5 May 2019 at 06:00 UT	O		494 x 510 km x 40°
7	19037	A: Painani B: Prometheus 2-9 C: BlackSky Global 3 E: Acrux 1 F: Spacebee 9 G: Spacebee 8 K: Prometheus 2-7	29 Jun 2019 at 04:30 UT	O		450km circular orbit 80 kg total payload
8	19054	A: BRO 1 B: BlackSky Global 4 C and D: Pearl White 1 and 2	19 Aug 2019 at 12:12 UT	O
9	19069	Palisade	17 Oct 2019 at 01:22 UT	O
10	19084	A: ALE 2 D: Noor 1A E: Noor 1B F: Fossasat 1 G: TRSI H: ATL 1 J: SMOG-P	6 Dec 2019 at 08:18 UT	O		350 x 400 km x 97°
11	20007	USA 294	31 Jan 2020 at 02:56 UT	O
12	20037	USA 301-303 D: Andesite E: M2 Pathfinder	13 Jun 2020 at 05:12 UT	O
13	n/a	CE SAT 1B Faraday 1 Flock 4e 1 to 5	4 Jul 2020 at 21:19 UT	O		second stage failure, 4 minutes into launch
14	20060	A: First Light B: Capella 2	31 Aug 2020 at 03:05 UT	O
15	20077	F: CE-Sat 2B 9x Flock 4e'/superDove	28 Oct 2020 at 21:21 UT	O
16	20085	C: Corvus BC5 BRO 2 and 3 SpaceBEE 22 to 45 Dragracer 1 and 2 APSS 1 (Te Waka Amiorangi o Aotearoa; 1U)~	20 Nov 2020 at 15:20 UT	O		First stage recovered
17	20098	Strix alpha	15 Dec 2020 at 10:09 UT	O
18	21004	GMS T	20 Jan 2021 at 07:26 UT	O
19	21023	A: Veery Hatchling (1U, US) B: Centauri 3 C: RAAF M2 A/B D: Tyvak 0152 E: Gunsmoke J 3 (US) G: BlackSky Global 9 H: Gunsmoke-J 1~	22 Mar 2021 at 22:30 UT	O
20	n/a	2 x BlackSky Global	15 May 2021 at 11:11 UTC	O		failure within the second stage igniter system
21	21068	Monolith	29 Jul 2021 at 06:00 UTC	O
22	21106	BlackSky Global 10 & 11	18 Nov 2021 at 01:38 UTC	O
23	21120	BlackSky Global 16 & 17	9 Dec 2021 at 00:02 UTC	O
24	22020	Strix beta	28 Feb 2022 at 20:35 UTC	O		First launch from pad 1B
25	22034	BlackSky Global 18 & 20	2 Apr 2022 at 12:41 UTC	O
26	22047	AE: BRO 6 AF: Aurorasat 1 E-Space Demo 1 to 3 Spacebee 140 to 155 Spacebee NZ 15 to 22 AC: TRSI 2 AB: Myradar 1 TRSI 3 Unicorn 2 Copia (attached)	2 May 2022 at 22:49 UTC	O
27	22070	Capstone (12U, 25 kg)	28 Jun 2022 at 09:55 UTC	O		with Photon Lunar stage non-earth orbit, L1 region
28	22079	USA 334	13 Jul 2022 at 06:30 UTC	O		590 km x 40°
29	22091	USA 335	4 Aug 2022 at 05:00 UTC	O
30	22113	Strix 1	15 Sep 2022 at 20:38 UTC	O
31	22127	GAzelle	7 Oct 2022 at 17:09 UTC	O
32	22147	MATS	4 Nov 2022 at 17:27 UTC	O
33	23011	Hawk 6A, 6B, 6C	24 Jan 2023 at 23:00 UTC	W
34	23035	C: Capella 9 B: Capella 10	16 Mar 2023 at 22:38 UTC	W		Delivered in 180 x 600 km orbit
35	23041	B: BlackSky Global 19 C: BlackSky Global 5	24 Mar 2023 at 09:15 UTC	O
36	23062	Tropics 5 and 6	8 May 2023 at 02:00 UTC	O
37	23073	Tropics 3 and 7	26 May 2023 at 03:46 UTC	O
38	n/a	HASTE	17 Jun 2023	W		suborbital
39	23100	Starling 1 to 4 G: LEO Vantage 3 2x Lemur	18 Jul 2023 at 01:27 UTC	O
40	23126	Capella 11	23 Aug 2023 at 23:45 UTC	O
41	n/a	Capella 12	19 Sep 2023 at 06:55 UTC	O		Failure: second stage did not ignite
42	23196	QPS-SAR 5	15 Dec 2023 at 04:05 UTC	O
43	24022	Lemur-2 Nimbus2000 Lemur-2 Valhalla Lemur-2 Oba-ni-Jesu Lemur-2 Cael	31 Jan 2024 at 06:34 UTC	O		only 24 kg payload mass?
44	24034	Adras J	18 Feb 2024 at 14:52 UTC	O

Notes: Launch from Onenui Station, New Zealand and W for Wallops Island

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