Atea-1

New Zealander sounding rocket. Single-stage New Zealand hybrid sounding rocket.

Atea-1 was a two-stage (boost motor plus payload dart) sub-orbital vehicle. It could be launched by users from existing launch infrastructure or Rocket Lab provided complete launch and recovery services.

Rocket Lab's hybrid booster used a polymer-based fuel with liquid Nitrous Oxide. The engine's 45 kg propellant load was capable of producing a peak thrust of 6.7kN for up to 14.5s, resulting in a total impulse of 100 kN-s. The vehicle utilized composite materials for flight structures, pressure vessels and the combustion chamber. The entire vehicle had an inert, dry mass of less than 20 kg. The standard Atea-1 featured an in-house developed avionics package, recovery systems for land or sea, power supply and payload-avionics interface. Atea-1 characteristics:

• Inert shipping – no solid fuels or explosives
• ITAR free – Rocket Lab was able to export to customers from any friendly nation
• Land or sea-based recovery was possible
• Payload recovery – A GPS transceiver used the Inmarsat B satellite constellation to communicate the launch vehicle
• Max. Launch G-Force 15 g's
• Max. Velocity > Mach 5
• Standard Payload Size Ø 58mm x 900mm L

Payload: 2.00 kg (4.40 lb) to a 150 km altitude.