Rocket Lab recently posted a video showing off “Rosie,” the robot that can build launch vehicles. The company competes with the likes of SpaceX and Virgin Orbit to ferry small satellites into low Earth orbit.
Rosie is said to be “absolutely massive” and takes up a whole room to function. It processes the carbon composite components of Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket for the next phase of production. The robot allows the company to create a launch vehicle “so much faster” than before.
Rosie beating the competition
The robot does all the necessary marking, machining, and drilling, letting the company prepare one launch vehicle every 12 hours before it’s gone into production for further work.
“Traditionally you talk about rocket manufacturing in years, then you start talking about it in months, then weeks,” Beck previously said about Rosie. “Well, we talk about it in days. Raw materials come in [and a] rocket comes out in a matter of hours.”
Rosie started working around 18 months ago, but not much has been spoken about it since then. However, recently the company shed some light on the robot as it continues to build Electron rockets for future missions.
Rocket Lab plans to increase launch frequency
Although Rocket Lab can manufacture a rocket every 20 days, its launch frequency is yet to match the supply. The company has managed to launch 10 missions in the last 18 months. The latest mission happened in May this year; however, the second stage rocket failed to reach orbit and ended up losing two commercial satellites.
However, it’s notable that the company has managed to launch 17 successful missions from 20 launches. Rocket Lab aims to increase the launch frequency in the coming years. Earlier, the company announced it is making a more advanced and powerful rocket dubbed Neutron.
Neutron will be a 40m tall rocket and will be Rocket Lab’s first vehicle to ferry humans to space. It will also be used for placing satellites in orbit and possibly interplanetary missions at some point in time.
