Launcher was an American aerospace company based in

Hawthorne, California Hawthorne is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California. It is part of a seventeen-city subregion of the Los Angeles metropolitan area commonly known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay. As of the 2020 United States cens ...

. It was founded in New York City in 2017 by Max Haot. In February 2019 the company presented its E-2 engine, which was made in Germany by AMCM using its specialized M4K printer. The engine uses

liquid oxygen Liquid oxygen, sometimes abbreviated as LOX or LOXygen, is a clear cyan liquid form of dioxygen . It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an application which is ongoing. Physical ...

and

kerosene Kerosene, or paraffin, is a combustibility, combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in Aviation fuel, aviation as well as households. Its name derives from the Greek (''kērós'') meaning " ...

propellants. The company's Launcher Light rocket was designed to carry payloads of up to 150 kg to

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

. In November 2019 the

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

awarded the company $1.5 million to accelerate development and testing of its E-2 rocket engine. In March 2021 Launcher moved its headquarters from New York to a 24,000-square-foot building in Hawthorne, California. In February 2023 Launcher was acquired by Vast, a startup company developing artificial gravity

space station A space station (or orbital station) is a spacecraft which remains orbital spaceflight, in orbit and human spaceflight, hosts humans for extended periods of time. It therefore is an artificial satellite featuring space habitat (facility), habitat ...

s, with Max Haot becoming Vast's president.

Orbiter

The company has developed an orbital transfer vehicle named Orbiter that uses ethane and

nitrous oxide Nitrous oxide (dinitrogen oxide or dinitrogen monoxide), commonly known as laughing gas, nitrous, or factitious air, among others, is a chemical compound, an Nitrogen oxide, oxide of nitrogen with the Chemical formula, formula . At room te ...

as propellants for use as the third stage of the canceled Light rocket, or for use on other launch vehicles. In June 2021, the company raised $11.7 million in a Series-A round of funding to accelerate the development of its first orbital vehicle. Orbiter is compatible with both Launcher Light and SpaceX Falcon rideshare flights. SN1, Orbiter's first mission was launched on January 3, 2023, from

Cape Canaveral, Florida Cape Canaveral is a city in Brevard County, Florida. It is part of the Palm Bay–Melbourne– Titusville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 9,912 at the 2020 US census. History After the establishment of a lighthouse in 184 ...

on SpaceX's Falcon 9 Transporter-6 rideshare flight, transporting payload from eight customers. SN1 failed shortly after deployment, with all but one customer payloads lost. Following Vast's acquisition of Launcher the Orbiter program was discontinued, with the company now focusing on the development of the E-2 liquid rocket engine.

Missions

References

External links

Official Website
Aerospace companies of the United States Private spaceflight companies Defunct companies based in Seattle {{US-company-stub

Orbiter

Missions

See also

References

External links