In a highly intertwined space sector, cooperation is traditionally required despite geopolitical tensions.

There "it's unheard of," said in an interview with AFP the New Zealand boss of the company behind Electron, the only minilauncher currently operational in the world.

In response to European sanctions, Russia suspended launches of its Soyuz rocket for the benefit of its Western customers.

But the invasion of Ukraine has "a much greater impact than the simple Soyuz launcher", he believes.

Russia grappling with sanctions, Ukraine having become a battleground, it is a whole section of the world space industry which finds itself out of the game, according to him: the Russian rocket Proton, the American launcher Antares, whose " the first stage is Russian and the engines Ukrainian", the Italian Vega rocket (first stage provided by Ukraine, Indian rockets)...

"What's left? There's Ariane 5, but it's launched twice a year, there's the H1 from Mitsubishi which is launched every two years, the Falcon 9 from SpaceX, the Atlas from (the American) ULA - but he uses Russian engines although he thinks he has a solution - there is Electron and that's about it," he explains.

The Ariane 6 rocket must make its first flight at the end of the year and its manifesto is already completed for the next 11 flights.

However, many satellite constellation projects, mostly intended to provide internet from space, are on the way and will need to be launched in the coming years.

These needs were identified but "now that Soyuz, Proton and all these other launchers are out of the game, it's almost a launcher crisis in 2024-2025".

The Falcon 9 rocket is well launched at a frantic pace but SpaceX is concentrating beforehand on the deployment of its own Starlink constellation.

Aggressive schedule

Rocket Lab, it has developed with the success of Electron, a mini-launcher fired from New Zealand capable of putting a load of 200 to 300 kilos into low orbit.

Launched 24 times since 2017, the rocket is on the way to being reusable, so Peter Beck decided last year to go upmarket: the company is developing a new rocket, the Neutron, a reusable launcher with a capacity of equivalent to that of Soyuz, i.e. 8 tonnes.

If the rocket does not return to its launch pad but lands at a distance, it can even carry as much as a Falcon 9 (13 tons), he promises.

“We saw this a year ago as an opportunity to compete with Soyuz and Falcon 9. We went, literally overnight, from a major commercial project to an absolute necessity to ensure access for Westerners to the space", considers Peter Beck.

Unlike Electron, Neutron will not be launched from New Zealand but from the launch pad of Wallops Island, on the east coast of the United States.

"Simply because there is not the industrial base to support a project of this size. If we took all the liquid oxygen produced in New Zealand, we would half fill the Neutron tank", caricature-t -he.

Neutron, which will be equipped with a new engine called Archimède, will benefit from many technologies, such as components in composite materials, developed for Electron.

As for picking up the pace so that Neutron is available sooner than 2024, it's not that simple.

"It doesn't matter if we devote more resources, more money, it will not shorten the schedule", which is "already aggressive", believes Peter Beck.

But with the war in Ukraine, it's about "doing everything in our power to develop this launcher".

© 2022 AFP