, a venerable rocket that has never failed to perform. Big space provided positive global headlines in the midst of an increasingly depressing domestic and international newsscape. These stories were all over TV in remote French Polynesia, where I have been spending some time scuba diving.
So given big rockets aren’t likely to be a one size fits all perfect solution for all of launch – where do small launchers fit in?, capable of putting around 300 kg of payload into low Earth orbit, is arguably the current market leading small launcher and its service is priced around $25,000 per kg. That’s more than the Falcon 9 but the US / New Zealand firm has not had trouble finding customers.
Rocket Lab didn’t start out pursuing reusability, but the firm has reacted to this trend and is making efforts to reuse the booster stage of Electron. Full vehicle reusability is not in the cards for Electron since a much bigger booster would be required to accommodate an upper stage capable of surviving re-entry.