Let’s talk about small rockets. The fact that they’re small make them easier to be mass-produced in a relatively small facility. This in turn can reduce the overall price for the customers. The time to prepare a launch can be greatly reduced as well.

Now, when the small satellite users first build their satellite cluster, they need a big ride, like Falcon 9 or PSLV. But as the time goes by, individual satellite starts to fail, break apart and fall back to Earth, in a random fashion. For these cases, each satellite must be replaced one by one at the time it becomes offline. And for these replenishment launches, it is impossible to use big rockets, as they break even when they launch at least a few dozens of satellites at a time, not just one. I think this is the part where small rocket comes in.

Small rockets will enable individual, rapid launches for small satellites at a competitive price.

Despite the many advantages, it is, in some perspective, actually more difficult to make a small orbital rocket than larger ones. Not every component of the rocket can scale down, making it exponentially difficult for small launchers to maintain competitive payload mass ratio.

To develop a smallsat launcher with high mass ratio, Perigee is working hard to make a more efficient rocket engine, an all-CFRP structure including cryogenic propellant tanks, and a strong strap-on avionics package that is lightweight and draws significantly less power. To do so, Perigee collaborated with KAIST Aerospace Engineering to establish the Rocket Research Center. Today at RRC, we are testing some state-of-the-art combustors, preburners and valves. At the end of last year, we launched a small sounding rocket in Jeju Island. We’re also working on rocket TVC hovering these days.

Perigee is a rapidly growing team made of passionate, free-thinking minds with diverse backgrounds. And all of us here love solving some of the most difficult technical problems in the world. People at Perigee gaze up at the stars and dream about humanity’s future among them.

If you want to be part of that future, don’t hesitate, and join us.

https://perigee.space