Skip to main content

Rocket Lab shows off Rosie, its rocket-building robot

Rocket Lab has shown off its Rosie robot that can prepare a rocket for production in just 12 hours.

The company, which competes with the likes of SpaceX and Virgin Orbit to launch small satellites into low Earth orbit, posted a video on Twitter this week showing Rosie hard at work.

Recommended Videos

https://twitter.com/RocketLab/status/1412501531820130305

According to Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck, the “absolutely massive” robot — it takes up an entire room — processes the carbon composite components of the company’s workhorse Electron rocket in preparation for the next stage of production.

Rosie enables Rocket Lab to create a launch vehicle “so much faster” than before.

Rosie does all of the necessary marking, machining, and drilling, among other tasks, allowing Rocket Lab to prepare one launch vehicle every 12 hours before it’s sent to the production line for further work.

“Traditionally you talk about rocket manufacturing in years, then you start talking about it in months, then weeks,” Beck said in an earlier video about Rosie, adding, “Well, we talk about it in days. Raw materials come in [and a] rocket comes out in a matter of hours.”

Rosie the rocket-building robot actually started work about 18 months ago, but we’ve not heard much about it since then. However, this week Rocket Lab decided to put Rosie back in the spotlight as it continues to churn out Electron rockets for future launches.

Although Rocket Lab is able to manufacture a rocket every 20 days or so, its launch frequency is yet to match, with the company managing 10 missions in the last 18 months.

Its most recent mission took place in May this year, but the second stage of the Electron rocket failed to reach orbit, resulting in the loss of two commercial satellites. But it should be noted that of Rocket Lab’s 20 rocket launches since its first one in 2017, 17 have been successful with only three ending in failure. The company plans to increase its launch frequency in the coming years.

Earlier this year Rocket Lab announced it’s building a more powerful and more advanced rocket, called Neutron. The 40-meter-tall rocket will be the company’s first vehicle capable of carrying humans to space, and will also be used for satellite deployment and possibly even interplanetary missions.

Beck himself also hit the headlines earlier this year when he literally ate his hat after his company started exploring ways to reuse rockets, something he once said Rocket Lab would never do.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
SpaceX photos show Super Heavy heading to launchpad for fifth starship flight
SpaceX's Super Heavy booster on its way to the launchpad.

SpaceX's Super Heavy booster makes its way to the launchpad. SpaceX

SpaceX has shared photos of the Super Heavy booster being transported to the launchpad at its facility in Boca Chica, Texas, ahead of the Starship’s fifth test flight, which is expected to take place in the first half of August.

Read more
Watch Europe’s new Ariane 6 rocket lift off for the first time
The Ariane 6 on its maiden flight in July 2024.

Ariane 6 first liftoff

Arianespace and the European Space Agency (ESA) have successfully completed the maiden launch of the new Ariane 6 heavy-lift rocket.

Read more
Is this the most beautiful rocket launch ever?
A Falcon 9 rocket launches from California.

SpaceX chief Elon Musk has shared a video of an astonishingly beautiful Falcon 9 launch.

It shows the start of the NROL-186 mission, which took place last week and deployed next-generation spy satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).

Read more