Rocket Lab at Warkworth

I will stretch the subject matter of the blog here, and post about a partly developed in New Zealand machine that flies through the skies and beyond!  That machine is a rocket and more precisely a rocket that is being tested by Rocket Lab in Warkworth!

In October 2018 Rocket Lab acquired the high tech composite manufacturing facilities of Sail GP at Warkworth and this supports the manufacture of the company's Electron rockets and development of the new Neutron rocket.  The Neutron rocket is a 43 metre high 13,000 Kg payload re-useable rocket that was announced in 2021 and is scheduled to test fly in 2025.

Today I photo'd this structure that stands in an engineering company's yard just a short distance from the Warkworth Rocket Lab facility.  It seems to be a mock up of the nose cone of the Neutron rocket and as you can see in the screen shot below taken from a recent video, it opens up like a clamshell and the second stage of the rocket which is inside then blasts out.  The clam shell nose doors then close and the rocket will eventually return to its launch pad to land and launch again.

Pretty clever stuff!