Rocket Lab offers next day delivery to space

Not so long ago, orbital launches required years of planning, months of testing and careful preparation. But Rocket Lab's new program will allow customers to show up at the launch site with their payload in the trunk and launch it into orbit 24 hours later. Next day premium rates will apply, of course.

The reactive space program is actually a little more formal than that, but the very idea of ​​going from zero to launch in a day or less is pretty impressive.

“Reactive launch capability has been built into the design of Electron and our launch sites since day one, and we have made strategic investments in vertical spacecraft manufacturing to enable this,” said said Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck. And as the release states: "Upon arrival at the launch site, payload integration, encapsulation and launch can be completed in as little as 24 hours."

Your company will, of course, need to be part of the program and work with Rocket Lab beforehand on the exact specifications, orbit, and other variables needed for any successful launch. So while you can't just show up to the launch complex with a few million dollars and a satellite, you can give them all the relevant details and say you could show up like this within the next six months.

While the company has made very quick turnarounds in the past and launched on fairly short notice for clients like the National Reconnaissance Office, it has yet to accomplish this lightning-fast turnaround, but the company is convinced that it is possible. Indeed, as Beck points out, this has been one of the abilities he's mostly aspired to from the start. And a company representative told me that customers have repeatedly requested this type of ultra-short turnaround option.

Understandably, the payload is also unlikely to arrive in the back of a pickup truck - Rocket Lab emphasizes its ability to build, maintain, and otherwise operate or prepare satellites and systems for support in its own facilities. It's more likely that if you're part of this new program, your satellite will be waiting in a clean room somewhere in New Zealand (or from December, in Virginia) while you iron the last of its code or struggle against red tape.

Then, when you get the green light, you'll call Peter and he'll put your bird into orbit before the sun goes down tomorrow. They might even catch the first step on the way down.