Electron

Electron is a small-lift rocket built by Rocket Lab, a company with roots in both New Zealand and the United States. First flown in 2017, it was designed for small satellites — letting operators launch on their own schedule to a precise orbit instead of riding along on a larger rocket and accepting whatever orbit the main customer chooses.

Standing about 18 meters tall and 1.2 meters wide, Electron can carry roughly 300 kg to low Earth orbit. Its Rutherford engines — nine on the first stage and one vacuum-optimized engine on the second — were the first electric-pump-fed engines to power an orbital rocket. Instead of hot-gas turbines, battery-powered electric motors drive the propellant pumps, and the engines’ main components are 3D-printed.

An optional third stage called the Kick Stage, or a Photon spacecraft bus, can carry payloads to final orbits — or, as with NASA’s CAPSTONE in 2022, all the way to the Moon. Electron flies from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand and Launch Complex 2 at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, and has also flown suborbital hypersonic tests under the HASTE program. Rocket Lab has also pursued first-stage recovery and reuse.