Ātea-1

Rocket Lab is currently developing a new launch vehicle that offers access to space at an unprecedented low cost. The Atea-1 is a two-stage sub-orbital vehicle capable of carrying payloads of 2 kg up to 120 km altitude. The new launch vehicle offers significant advantages in cost and is aimed at opening up access to space for scientific research at an unprecedented level.

Rocket Lab has taken the approach to provide the international science community with a quick-response, mobile solution with high flexibility in mind. It can be launched by users on existing launch infrastructure or Rocket Lab can provide complete launch and recovery services.

The Ātea-1 leverages Rocket Lab’s innovative propulsion technologies in the form of a hybrid booster. This engine, currently under development, uses a polymer based fuel with liquid Nitrous Oxide. The engine is capable of producing a peak thrust of 1,550 lbf for up to 14.5s, resulting in a total impulse of approximately 22,500 lbf-s.

The new launch vehicle demonstrates and showcases Rocket Lab’s wide ranging and innovative capabilities in developing rocket engines, launch vehicles and associated subsystems. The vehicle utilises composite materials intensively for flight structures, pressure vessels and the combustion chamber. This results in an extremely mass efficient vehicle – weighing less than 65kg at launch (with propellant). The entire vehicle has an inert, dry mass of less than 20kg.

The standard Ātea-1 features a comprehensive in-house developed avionics package, recovery systems for land or sea, power supply and payload-avionics interface. Some of the many advantages of this vehicle include:

• Inert shipping – no solid fuels or explosives
• ITAR free – Rocket Lab is able to export to customers from any friendly nation
• Land or sea-based recovery is possible
• Payload recovery – A GPS transceiver uses the Inmarsat B satellite constellation to communicate the launch vehicle