Peter Beck and Rocket Lab's Electron launch vehicle
Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck aims to have the company’s Electron rocket blasting off from a New Zealand launch site within a year. (Credit: Rocket Lab)

The CubeSat revolution has come to this: Now you can make an online reservation for a nanosatellite launch almost as easily as booking a flight from Seattle to Los Angeles.

L.A.-based Rocket Lab unveiled its launch booking system today at the annual SmallSat conference in Logan, Utah. “It’s really about trying to break down the barriers and make space more accessible,” Peter Beck, the company’s CEO, explained during a GeekWire interview.

It’s one more small step toward turning the satellite business into a turnkey operation for researchers, entrepreneurs, students and Kickstarter-savvy enthusiasts. Seattle’s Spaceflight Industries already provides a menu of launch services, organized by satellite size and timing. Rocket Lab kicks it up a notch by letting potential customers choose their spot, right down to selecting the “seat” for their satellite.

Rocket reservation
Rocket Lab’s reservation system lets customers select their launch date, orbital parameters (sun-synchronous vs. 45-degree inclination) and the “seat” for their satellite. (Credit: Rocket Lab)

The prices range from between $50,000 and $90,000 for a 1U CubeSat (measuring 4 by 4 by 4 inches) to between $180,000 and $250,000 for a 3U satellite (4 by 4 by 12 inches). Where the price falls within those ranges will depend on the available space and the demand.

“As it comes closer to a flight, if we’re having trouble filling seats, we may discount those flights to make sure they’re full,” Beck said. “It’s very similar to an airline.”

Rocket Lab’s departures aren’t yet as routine as an airline’s. In fact, they haven’t even started. The company — which is backed by Khosla Ventures, Lockheed Martin and other heavy-hitters — is still testing its Electron propulsion system and working on its launch pad on New Zealand’s South Island.

Even in the best-case scenario for flight tests, commercial operations won’t begin until mid-2016. Nevertheless, some flights are already nearly sold out, thanks to early reservations by yet-to-be-identified customers, Beck said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAqaheHHIlQ

What are those customers launching? They’re not necessarily CubeSats: The two-stage Electron rocket is built to put a satellite as heavy as 220 pounds (100 kilograms) into a 310-mile-high (500-kilometer-high) orbit for $4.9 million. Those are the kinds of satellites that could be used to build a low-cost communication constellation, similar to the multibillion-dollar Internet access networks being developed by SpaceX and OneWeb.

CubeSats are becoming increasingly capable as well, thanks to the miniaturization of electronic components. Potential applications range from Earth imaging, to weather forecasting, to even more ambitious tasks. For example, Redmond-based Planetary Resources is developing a line of low-cost space telescopes and asteroid-hunting spacecraft based on the CubeSat design. Just last month, the venture’s first demonstration spacecraft, a 3U CubeSat, was ejected into orbit from the International Space Station.

Rocket Lab’s Electron is designed to deploy CubeSats automatically after the second stage reaches orbit. “We put in this CubeSat system because we’ve had so many inquiries,” Beck said.

Beck acknowledged that using Rocket Lab’s reservation system isn’t quite as simple as using Travelocity. You can’t plug in your credit card number to pay the fare; instead, Rocket Lab has to follow up with you offline to work out the payment details. But who knows? Someday, the cost of launching a CubeSat may be cheap enough to cover with your frequent-flier miles.

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.