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Vector Completes Successful Flight Test of Vector-R Launch Vehicle, SpaceRef
“This successful flight test represents Vector’s next technical milestone of the Vector-R launch vehicle. The flight test, which took place in Mojave, Calif. on May 3, featured Vector’s first stage 5K-lbf engine and 3D additive manufacturing printed injector, which was successfully tested in December 2016, and developed in partnership with NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program.”
Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member... More by Keith Cowing
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A rocket startup that launches rockets! Great job.
Hoorah!
Vector’s support from the Flight Opportunities Program, which seems reasonably efficient, is a positive sign. Propylene has (modest) energy advantages over RP-1 as a propellant, and the complex injector plate is a very reasonable application for 3-D printing. But whether this will be enough to turn a profit in the relatively limited suborbital and small LEO satellite market is yet to be seen. In the larger commercial markets (GEO and multiple LEO satellite launches) , the higher lift capacity and substantially greater financial resources of SX and Blue will make them tough to beat. Finally, the pressure fed design makes sense for a small rocket like the one tested, but at larger launch masses the pressurized fuel tank is too heavy and pump-fed engines have the advantage.