SPACE LAUNCH REPORT Electron Launch Vehicle Flight History by Variant/Year (2017-Present) by Ed Kyle, Last Update April 23, 2024 L(F) = Number of Launches(Number of Failures) Electron Electron Electron Electron Grand Curie Photon HASTE Total Year L(F) L(F) L(F) L(F) L(F) L(F) ------------------------------------------------------------------ 2010 - - - - - - 2011 - - - - - - 2012 - - - - - - 2013 - - - - - - 2014 - - - - - - 2015 - - - - - - 2016 - - - - - - 2017 1(1) - - - - 1(1) 2018 - 3(0) - - - 3(0) 2019 - 6(0) - - - 6(0) 2020 - 7(1) - - - 7(1) 2021 - 6(1) - - - 6(1) 2022 - 8(0) 1(0) - - 9(0) 2023 - 9(1) - 1(0) - 10(1) 2024 - 5(0) - - - 5(0) ------------------------------------------------------------------ Electron Electron Electron Electron Grand Curie Photon HASTE Total L(F) L(F) L(F) L(F) L(F) L(F) ------------------------------------------------------------------ Suborb - - - 1(0) - 1(0) Orbit 1(1) 44(3) 1(0) - - 46(4) Total 1(1) 44(3) 1(0) 1(0) - 47(4) ------------------------------------------------------------------ Electron Configurations LEO Liftoff Liftoff Payload Height Mass (tonnes) (meters) (tonnes) [1] 180x300 km x 45 deg [2] 500 km x 98.6 deg [3] TLI ================================================================== Electron/ 0.225 t [1] (2018) 17 m 12.55 t(2018) Curie 0.150 t [2] (2018) 17 m 13.0 t (2020) 0.300 t [1] (2020) 0.200 t [2] (2020) Electron/ 0.027 t [3] 17 m 13.0 t Photon ================================================================== Electron/Curie = Stg 1 (9 x Rutherford) + Stg 2 (1 x Rutherford Vacuum) + Kick Stage (Curie) + Payload Fairing (PLF) Electron Stage Data ================================================================= Stg Name Loaded Empty Thrust ISP ISP Burn Dia Len Mass Mass sec sec time tonnes tonnes tonnes SL Vac sec m m ------------------------------------------------------------------ 2018 Versions Stage 1 10.2 0.95 15.65* 303 1.2 12.1 Stage 2 2.3 0.25 2.27 333 1.2 2.4 2020 Versions Stage 1 10.2 0.95 18.99* 311 1.2 12.1 Stage 2 2.3 0.25 2.63 343 1.2 2.4 2024 Versions Stage 1 10.2 0.95 19.50* 311 145 1.2 12.1 Stage 2 2.3 0.25 2.63 343 403 1.2 2.4 Curie Stages Kick Stage 0.04 0.0122 124 1.2 0.405 HASTE 0.04 0.0122 124 1.2 0.405 Hyper Curie Stage Photon Lunar 0.055 0.051 310 1.4 1.1 PLF 0.044 1.2 2.5 ================================================================= * Sea Level Liftoff Thrust Comprehensive Launch List DATE VEHICLE ID PAYLOAD MASS(t) SITE* ORBIT* ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 05/25/17 Electron F01 It's a Test MA 1 [FTO] 01/21/18 Electron/Curie F02 Still Testing 0.013 MA 1 LEO 11/11/18 Electron/Curie F03 It's Business Time ~0.045 MA 1 LEO 12/16/18 Electron/Curie F04 For Pickering ~0.078 MA 1 LEO 03/28/19 Electron/Curie F05 R3D2 (DARPA) 0.150 MA 1 LEO 05/05/19 Electron/Curie F06 STP 27RD 0.180 MA 1 LEO 06/29/19 Electron/Curie F07 Spaceflight Rideshare 0.080 MA 1 LEO 08/19/19 Electron/Curie F08 4 usats ~0.080 MA 1 LEO 10/17/19 Electron/Curie F09 Palisade ~0.02 MA 1 LEO 12/06/19 Electron/Curie F10 Running out of Fingers ~0.077 MA 1 SSO 01/31/20 Electron/Curie F11 NROL-51 MA 1 SSO? 06/13/20 Electron/Curie F12 Rideshare MA 1 LEO 07/04/20 Electron/Curie F13 CE-SAT-1B/Dovesats MA 1 [FTO] 08/31/20 Electron/Curie F14 Sequoia 0.100 MA 1 LEO 10/28/20 Electron/Curie F15 CESAT 2B/Flock 4e ~0.081 MA 1 SSO 11/20/20 Electron/Curie F16 Dragracer/Swarm/etc ~0.046 MA 1 SSO 12/15/20 Electron/Curie F17 StriX-a 0.15 MA 1 SSO 01/20/21 Electron/Curie F18 GMS-T MA 1 LEO 03/22/21 Electron/Curie F19 Global 9 + 5 nsats ~0.09 MA 1 LEO 05/15/21 Electron/Curie F20 2xBlackSky ~0.112 MA 1 [FTO] 07/29/21 Electron/Curie F21 Monolith MA 1 LEO 11/18/21 Electron/Curie F22 2xBlackSky ~0.112 MA 1 LEO 12/09/21 Electron/Curie F23 2xBlackSky ~0.112 MA 1 LEO 02/28/22 Electron/Curie F24 StriX-B ~0.15 MA 1B SSO 04/02/22 Electron/Curie F25 2xBlackSky ~0.122 MA 1A LEO 05/02/22 Electron/Curie F26 34 usats ~0.05 MA 1A SSO 06/28/22 Electron/Photon F27 CAPSTONE 0.027 MA 1B TLI 07/13/22 Electron/Curie F28 NROL-162 MA 1A LEO 08/04/22 Electron/Curie F29 NROL 199 MA 1B LEO 09/15/22 Electron/Curie F30 StriX 1 0.1 MA 1B SSO 10/07/22 Electron/Curie F31 GAzelle ~ 0.15 MA 1B SSO 11/04/22 Electron/Curie F32 MATS 0.05 MA 1B SSO 01/24/23 Electron/Curie F33 HawkEye 360 0.45 WI 0C LEO 03/16/23 Electron/Curie F34 Capella 9/10 0.224 WI 0C LEO 03/24/23 Electron/Curie F35 BlackSky 18-19 ~0.122 MA 1B LEO 05/08/23 Electron/Curie F36 Tropics F2 ~0.011 MA 1B LEO 05/26/23 Electron/Curie F37 Tropics F3 ~0.011 MA 1B LEO 06/18/23 Electron/HASTE F38 DYNAMO-A WI 0C SUB 07/18/23 Electron/Curie F39 7xCubesats 0.09 MA 1B LEO 08/23/23 Electron/Curie F40 Acadia (SAR) 0.165 MA 1B LEO 09/19/23 Electron/Curie F41 Acadia 2 (SAR) 0.165 MA 1B [FTO] 12/15/23 Electron/Curie F42 QPS SAR-5 ~0.1 MA 1B LEO 01/31/24 Electron/Curie F43 4xNorthstar 0.064 MA 1B SSO 02/18/24 Electron/Curie F44 ADRAS-J 0.15 MA 1B SSO 03/12/24 Electron/Curie F45 StriX 3 0.1 MA 1B SSO 03/21/24 Electron/Curie F46 NROL 123 WI 0C LEO 04/23/24 Electron/Curie F47 NeonSat 1/ACS 3 ~0.1 MA 1B SSO ------------------------------------------------------------------------- [F01] Inaugural launch. Failed to orbit. [F02] Dovesat to 290 x 530 km x 82.92 deg orbit, then unannounced monoprop kick stage fired its 12.2 kgf "Curie" engine at T+48-49 min to insert two Lemur-2 cubesats into roughly 490 x 530 km orbits. [F13] Failure during Stage 2 flight. Planned LEO/S. Rocket Lab concluded that an electrical connection had overheated and failed, cutting off electrical power to the turbopump motor. [F19] Curie stage operated as precursor Photon satellite after insertion mission. Photon Pathstone test stage with Curie engine. LEO extended flight after payload separation. [F16] First stage parachuted to ocean splashdown for inspection/recovery. [F20] Stg 2 tumbled and shut down right after staging. First stage parachuted toocean landing. Electron 20 failure began after "an issue occurred" in the second stage engine igniter system about 3 min 20 sec into the flight. The problem corrupted signals in the engine computer which then drove the Rutherford engine’s thrust vector control (TVC) abnormally, causing the engine to shut down. [F22] Stg 1 parachuted to ocean landing. [F25] 430 km x 42 deg orbit. [F26] Curie fired at apogee for 540 km x 98.6 deg LEO/S. 1st Stg parachute recovery try by helicopter aborted, but stage splashed down and was ship-recovered. [F27] Electron to 154 x 171 km x 39.1 deg. Photon 1st burn to 169 x 1,045 km x 39.1 deg, second burn to 220 x 1,075 km. Multiple Photon burns until final burn to ~220 x 1,310,000 km on Day 6. 12U cubesat CAPSTONE separated and later moved itself to Halo orbit around Moon. [F28] 06:30 UTC. To ~600 km x 39.8 deg. [F29] 05:00 UTC. LEO x 82 deg. NROL 199 (RASR 4) [F20] 20:38 UTC. 563 km x 97 deg. [F31] 1709 UTC. To 750 km x 98 deg. PL < 180 kg. [F32] S1 recovery attempt aborted due telemetry loss. 580 x 595 km x 97.7 deg. [F33] Curie Kick Stage burn to reach 548 x 552 km x 40.5 deg orbit. Three 15 kg elints. First Electron launch from a U.S. pad. Wallops Island Pad 0C, confusingly called "LC 2" by RocketLab. Stg 2 in a 325 x 563 km orbit. [F34] Curie Kick Stage burn to reach ~600 km x 44 deg orbit. 57:28 mission. [F35] Curie Kick Stage burn to reach 450 km x 42 deg orbit. Stg 1 parachute recovery in ocean. [F36/F37] Stage 2 direct to 550 km orbit. Kick Stage burned at first ascending equator crossing to decrease inclination. 535 x 555 km x 32.73 deg orbit. [F38] First Electron/HASTE suborbital launch. 0124 UTC. Modified Kick Stage and PLF. Up to 700 kg payload possible. Classified mission. [F39] 0127 UTC. 1-Curie burn to 564x576 km x 99.45 deg for 4xStarling (48 kg) and 2xSPIREGlobal (12 kg). Two more Curie burns to 991x1020 km x 99.45 deg for 40 kg Telesat LEO 3. First stage returned by parachute to ocean splashdown and recovery. [F40] 2330 UTC. 1 Curie burn to 640 km x 53 deg. Stg 1 returned by parachute to ocean recovery. First use of a previously- flown first stage engine. The 'We Love the Nightlife' mission was previously scheduled for launch earlier this month, and was initially not destined to be a recovery mission, but low ignitor pressure on a single engine during an initial launch attempt required the team to stand down and conduct further analysis. To keep the mission on schedule, and also expedite Rocket Lab’s reusability efforts the fairing, with Capella payload integrated within, was swapped onto the next available recovery- configured first stage in Rocket Lab’s production line. [F41] 0655 UTC. Stg 2 no start. FTO. Planned 635 km x 53 deg. Electrical arc in high voltage power supply for the Rutherford engine’s motor controllers shorted the battery packs that powered the second stage. Rocket Lab will improve testing on the ground and will house the HV power supply in a pressurized enclosure. [F42] 0400 UTC. Placed Japan commercial SAR in 575 km x 42 deg LEO. [F43] 0634 UTC. To 531 x 530 x 97.49 deg SSO. 1st stg recovered. [F44] 1452 UTC. To 577 x 622 km x 98.2 deg SSO. 2 Curie burns in quick succession at apogee. Inspector satellite to redezvous with H-2A upper stage. [F45] 1503 UTC. 561 km x 97 deg SSO. SAR. [F47] 2232 UTC. NeonSat 1 (<100 kg) to 520 km x 97 deg. NASA's ACS 3 (15 kg) to 1000 km x 97 deg. ------------------------------------------------------------------ FTO = Failed to Orbit LEO = Low Earth Orbit SSO = Sun Synchronous Orbit SUB = Suborbital FSO = Failed Suborbital TLI = Trans Lunar Injection MA = Mahia Peninsula, North Island, New Zealand WI = Wallops Island, Virginia, USA Rocket Lab Electron History Rocket Lab was founded in New Zealand in 2007 by Peter Beck. It launched a sounding rocket named Atea 1, the first private launch to space in the Southern Hemisphere, in November 2009. In December 2010, Rocket Lab won a U.S. contract from the Operationally Responsive Space Office (ORS) to study low cost small satellite launchers. In 2013, the company began development of the two-stage Electron orbital rocket, designed to orbit small (or "mini") satellites. The effort included development of the Rutherford engine, named for the New Zealand-born British physicist Ernest Rutherford, to power Electron. Rutherford used brushless DC motors powered by lithium polymer batteries to power its turbopump, replacing the usual gas generator. Rocket Lab announced its Electron plans to the world in 2015. NASA awarded the company a Venture Class Launch Services contract on October 31, 2015. The $6.95 million contract was for the launch of a NASA payload to low earth orbit on the fifth Electron, at the time expected to fly between late 2016 and early 2017. Electron was designed to orbit small satellites for about $4.9 million per mission. The design adopted innovative carbon composite tanks to hold both the kerosene fuel and the cryogenic liquid oxygen oxidizer. Nine Rutherford engines, each producing 1.739 tonnes of sea-level thrust at a 303 second vacuum specific impulse, powered the first stage. A single Rutherford Vacuum Engine powered the second stage, producing 2.268 tonnes thrust at a 333 second specific impulse. Electron weighed 12.55 tonnes at liftoff, rising on 15.65 tonnes thrust. It was 1.2 meters diameter and 17 meters tall. Its first stage was 12.1 meters tall, the second stage 2.4 meters, and the payload fairing 2.5 meters. The rocket was designed to lift 150 kg payloads to a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit. After the company sought and received U.S. capital, it established headquarters in Los Angeles, California and announced plans for some manufacturing to be done in the U.S. As the first launch approached, however, production, testing, and engineering remained in Auckland, New Zealand, and a single launch site had been built on the Mahia Peninsula of New Zealand's North Island. The launch site was completed on September 27, 2016. On March 21, 2016, Rocket Lab announced that it had qualified its Rutherford engine for flight. Development spanned two years and more than 200 engine hot fire tests. One month later, the company announced that the Electron second stage had been qualified, with test firings on the company's test stand. The first stage was qualified on December 13, 2016. electronc.jpg (16223 bytes)Electron Second Stage with Rutherford Vacuum Engine Rocket Lab delivered its first Electron vehicle to Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 at Mahia on February 16, 2017. A series of tests were planned before the rocket, named "It’s a Test", would be ready to fly. It would be the first of three planned test flights before Electron became operational. On March 22, 2017, Rocket Lab announced that it had garnered $75 million in new financing, bringing its total to $148 million. It also announced that it was opening an office in Huntington Beach, California that included production floor space. Electron Inaugural Falls Short of Orbit Electron Inaugural Falls Short of Orbit Rocket Lab's Electron rocket fell short of orbit in its inaugural test launch from New Zealand on May 25, 2017. The new small launch vehicle, named "It's a Test", lifted off from Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula of New Zealand's North Island at 04:20 UTC. The 17 meter tall, 1.2 meter diameter rocket, its innovative carbon composite case propellant tanks filled with kerosene and liquid oxygen, was slated to steer toward a south, south-east azimuth, rising on about 15.65 metric tons of thrust from its nine equally-innovative, electric-motor-pump-fed Rutherford engines. Electron carried test instrumentation, rather than a revenue payload, on this test flight. The launch was not broadcast live and post-launch information was limited. Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s CEO, reported that Electron had a good first stage burn, stage separation, second stage ignition, and fairing separation, but orbital velocity was not achieved. A 300 x 500 km x 83 deg orbit was planned. The company did not give a cause for the failure. It did release several videos showing portions of the first stage flight. An on-board video showed a roll developing during ascent. Plans called for the first stage to burn for 2 minutes 30 seconds. Stage separation was to take place four seconds after first stage shutdown. The second stage's single vacuum-optimized Rutherford engine was then slated to fire for 4 minutes 48 seconds to reach orbital velocity. The launch took place after several days of weather delays. Although orbit was not achieved, Mr. Beck expressed satisfaction with the results of the heavily instrumented test flight- the first of three such test flights currently planned. Electron Success Rocket Lab's Electron succeeded on its second test launch from New Zealand on January 21, 2018. The new small launch vehicle, named "Still Testing", lifted off from Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula of New Zealand's North Island at 01:43 UTC. The 17 meter tall, 1.2 meter diameter, less than 13 tonne rocket, its carbon composite case propellant tanks filled with kerosene and liquid oxygen, aimed toward a south, south-east azimuth, rising on about 15.65 metric tons of thrust from its nine electric-motor-pump-fed Rutherford engines. Electron carried three cubesats and test instrumentation on this test flight. The first stage engines ignited at T-2 seconds, with liftoff at T-0. The stage burned out at T+2 min 30 sec and separated four seconds later. The second stage's single vacuum-optimized Rutherford engine ignited at T+2 min 36 sec and fired until T+8 min 14 sec to reach orbital velocity. The two-part payload shroud separated about 3 min 5 sec after launch. Two Lemur-2 cubesats and one Dovesat were carried aloft. Rocket Lab's webcast suggested that all three separated at T+8 min 31 sec and were aimed toward 300 x 500 km x 83 deg orbits. Three objects were subsequently tracked in an orbit generally consistent with that target. But three additional objects were also tracked in nearly-circular 500 km orbits. On January 23, 2018, Rocket Lab announced that the second Electron had carried an unannouced monopropellant kick stage that fired at first apogee to insert the two Lemur-2 cubesats into roughly 490 x 530 km, near-circular orbits. The kick stage used a 12.2 kgf restartable engine named "Curie". The Dove satellite was jettisonned into the previously announced 300 x 500 km orbit shortly after the Electron second stage shut down. The kick stage did not perform its insertion burn until T+48-49 minutes, long after Rocket Lab's webcast of the launch ended suggesting that a successful flight had been concluded when it was, in fact, still underway. A photograph of the kick stage showed that it had on-board avionics and three-axis control jets. On January 24, Rocket Lab announced that a fourth payload, also previously unannounced, had been orbited, apparently accounting for a third object tracked in the 300 x 500 km orbit. The Rocket Lab payload, named Humanity Star, was "a geodesic sphere made from carbon fibre with 65 highly reflective panels". The spinning payload should relect sunlight to create a flashing effect visible to ground observers. The success followed a May 25, 2017 inaugural failure, when the "It's a Test" rocket developed a roll, followed by misconfigured telemetry equipment losing contact with the rocket about 4 minutes after launch, causing a range safety flight termination. Five scrubbed or aborted launch attempts preceeded the launch. They took place on December 9, 11, 12, and 15 and on January 20. It was the first flight to orbit by an all-composite tank liquid ueled rocket, the first orbital flight using electric-motor pump-fed engines, and the first orbital success from New Zealand. Electron 13 Fails Rocket Lab's 13th Electron, named "Pics Or It Didn’t Happen’", failed to reach orbit with seven small satellites on July 4, 2020. Liftoff from Mahia, New Zealand's LC 1 took place at 21:19 UTC. The flight appeared normal through the first stage burn, staging, second stage engine start, and fairing separation. At about T+5 minutes 42 seconds, however, about 45 seconds before the planned second stage battery hot-swap that would have transferred second stage engine turbopump power to a second battery, video downlink ended and acceleration appeared to cease. The second stage normally would have burned until the 9 minute 2 second mark to place the Curie third stage into a parking orbit. The primary payload was Canon Electronics CE-SAT-IB with experimental imaging equipment, five Planet SuperDove imaging satellites, and one In-Space 6U CubeSat named Faraday 1. Rocket Lab confirmed that the vehicle was lost soon after its webcast ended. The company vowed that it would find the problem and return to flight soon. The failure came after 11 consecutive Electron successes. After investigating and testing, Rocket Lab concluded that an electrical connection had overheated and failed, cutting off electrical power to the turbopump motor. This type of failure evaded detection during standard pre-flight testing. Rocket Lab would implement new tests designed to discover such potential poor connections. Performance Improvements On August 4, 2020, Rocket Lab announced that propulsion system improvements had increased payload performance to 300 kg for Low Earth Orbit and 200 kg for 500 km sun synchronous orbit from prior 225 kg and 150 kg values. Improved battery capacity likely played a role. Vacuum Rutherford thrust increased to 2.631 tonnes from 2.495 tonnes with specific impulse at 343 seconds. First stage Rutherford thrust increased to 2.54 tonnes vacuum and probably 2.11 tonnes sea level, with vacuum ISP at 311 seconds. Electron 20 Failure Rocket Lab's 20th Electron failed to reach orbit during its May 15, 2021 attempt to place two BlackSky Global Earth observation satellites into orbit from Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand. The second stage tumbled and its 5,800 lbf Rutherford Vacuum engine shut down moments after it separated from the first stage, about 2.5 minutes after liftoff from LC 1A. It was the third Electron failure and its second failure in eight flights. For the first time, Electron was topped by a twin-satellite adapter system that added a cylindrical extension to its payload fairing. One satellite sat on top of the adapter while the second rode within. Plans called for the two 60 kg satellites to be deployed into a 430 km x 50 deg orbit about 55.5 minutes after liftoff. Deployment would have followed a roughly 3 minute 43 second burn of the Curie powered kick stage. Plans had also been in place for the second Electron first stage recovery experiment. Rocket Lab reported that the first stage successfully parachuted to the surfact of the Pacific Ocean. Ship recovery efforts were underway. An investigation determined that the Electron 20 failure began after "an issue occurred" in the second stage engine igniter system about 3 min 20 sec into the flight. The problem corrupted signals in the engine computer which then drove the Rutherford engine’s thrust vector control (TVC) abnormally, causing the engine to shut down. Rocket Lab said that the igniter issue occurs under a "unique set of environmental pressures and conditions" that were not duplicated during ground testing. The company was able to duplicate the problem in testing, allowing modifications to be made in future designs. Electron Returns Rocket Lab's 21st Electron successfully orbited a U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory satellite named Monolith from Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand on July 29, 2021. It was a return-to-flight mission following the May 15, 2021 failure of Electron 20. Liftoff from LC 1 took place at 06:00 UTC. The rocket's Curie third stage inserted the payload into its final orbit within an hour of liftoff. Monolith would deploy a sensor package that comprised a "substantial fraction" of the total satellite mass. Electron/Photon CAPSTONE On June 28, 2022, Electron Flight 27 began a Photon mission from Mahia that ultimately placed the 12U cubesat CAPSTONE on a trans-lunar trajectory. Electron placed its first Photon upper stage into a 154 x 171 km x 39.1 deg orbit. Photon than began a series of burns that raised its orbit, first to 169 x 1,045 km x 39.1 deg, then to 220 x 1,075 km, and continuing over six days to reach a ~220 x 1,310,000 km trans-lunar orbit. CAPSTONE separated and over a three month period moved itself to a Halo orbit around the Moon. Electron 41 Failure Rocket Lab's Electron failed during its September 19, 2023 attempt to orbit Acadia 2, an SAR satellite, from Mahia. The second stage failed to ignite. It was Electron's 41st launch, including one suborbital mission, and fourth failure. Investigation would determine that an electrical arc had occurred within the high voltage power supply for the Rutherford engine’s motor controllers, shorting the battery packs that powered the second stage. Rocket Lab planned to improve testing on the ground and to house the HV power supply in a pressurized enclosure. References: Jonathan's Space Report Launch Vehicle Database "http://www.planet4589.org/space/lvdb/index.html" Encylopedia Astronautica "http://www.astronautix.com/" Gunter's Space Page "http://www.skyrocket.de/space" Rocket Lab Web Site, Electron Launch Vehicle Description, Viewed April, 2017