Everyone's going to Mars: Rocket Lab joins the Red Planet Fan Club

Small satellite launcher Rocket Lab has been tapped to provide a pair of Photon spacecraft for a mission to Mars in 2024. The Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission (yes, we suspect that there are elements within NASA just as keen on backronyms as we in Vulture Central) is to study Mars's …

[Gordon 10]

Its funny - these guys have done more than Bezos and Branston combined yet get barely any press attention. Snub or deliberate act of Rocket Lab to keep things on the QT?

[Mark 85]

Its funny - these guys have done more than Bezos and Branston combined yet get barely any press attention. Snub or deliberate act of Rocket Lab to keep things on the QT?

Maybe that they aren't attention whores like Bezos, etc.? Besides, they actually get into space unlike the other two.

[Flocke Kroes]

Engagement

Branson needed investors ticket buyers to fund Virgin Galactic and has a long history of publicity stunts (much better at diverting attention away from why he is rich than Bezos). Virgin Orbit has made two successful launches to orbit (January and June of this year) and this has just about made it into mainstream news. There is some coverage on space focused sites but there is far more enthusiasm for rockets that land (or almost land). It gets covered in investor news because that lot are desperate to throw money at the next SpaceX. (SpaceX is a private company and that places a legal limit on the number of investors.)

Bezos is downright secretive about any the lack of progress made on New Glenn. Space enthusiasts used to search hard for any scrap of news about another big rocket landing. It turns out Jeff put two tortoises on the Blue Origin Coat of Arms for a very good reason. He made an effort to put New Shepard in the news now that he is ready to sell tickets. This showed that news about Jeff generates lots of engagement - people expressing their hatred for how he got rich. Blue suing to stop Artemis after being stomped by the GAO caused a media explosion. Every publication wanted ad-revenue from providing a place for people to express their feelings.

Small launch is thoroughly overshadowed by medium rockets landing and big rockets exploding. If Peter Beck wants to make mainstream news he will have to whip a billion wage slaves while cheating on taxes.

[Scott 26]

Because - generally speaking - Kiwis are a unassuming lot.... just get on with it, and when the rest of the world says "huh, howthefuckdidyoudothat?" we shrug and say "no worries, mate"

[PerlyKing]

Unassuming Kiwis

See also: John Britten, RIP.

[Puuru]

Scott Base has had its very own satellite earth station since 1992. It's Kiwi designed and built, at only one tenth the cost of the Americans' previous failed efforts. Better yet, we did it using off the shelf American hardware, radome and all (the antenna is in the eggshell blue "golf ball" sitting at First Crater at Arrival Heights). Kiwi ingenuity? You bet! Made much fuss about it at the time? Nah! That's how New Zealand operates.