The private sector space industry took another step toward revolutionizing the way satellites are constructed and launched on Tuesday, when the U.S. and New Zealand-based company Rocket Lab unveiled a novel rocket engine that will power its Electron Rocket system.

The company bills the Rutherford Engine as the first battery-powered rocket engine.

Rocket Lab is positioning itself as providing the launch vehicle of choice for companies like Google's SkyBox, PlanetIQ and others who are looking to send large constellations of small, relatively low-cost satellites into space in the next decade.

These satellite fleets may be able to improve the accuracy of weather forecasts and climate data, boost compliance with environmental treaties, and bring Internet connections to third world nations that currently lack that connectivity.

Small satellites known as cubesats may even help change the way traditional satellite manufacturers and the U.S. government develop new satellite systems. The satellite procurement process has been plagued by budget overruns and delays. For example, a new weather satellite is so overdue that it may not be faunched before the current satellite exceeds its design lifetime, raising the possibility of a satellite coverage gap that could reduce the accuracy of medium-range weather forecasts.

The engine is created through 3D printing and using electric turbo-pumps, according to Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck. Rocket Lab boasts that the engine can put a satellite into orbit using the same amount of fuel as a jetliner would use to fly from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

Rocket Lab's U.S. office is in Los Angeles, and its major base of operations is in New Zealand, where it is constructing a launch facility that it says will be capable of launching at least one rocket per week. Yet this location divorces Rocket Lab from the major centers of rocketry talent in the U.S., which tend to be located in the capital beltway around Washington, D.C., as well as Silicon Valley — where SkyBox, among others, is located. New Zealand is best known as the filming location of the Lord of the Rings trilogy than for its space industry.

A battery-powered, 3D-printed rocket engine

The Rutherford engine has just under a megawatt of battery power on board, Beck told Mashable in an interview. He says the traditional manufacturing method for a rocket engine takes more than one month to complete, whereas his company, which was founded in 2008, is constructed in just three days using advanced 3D printing techniques.

The Rutherford Engine. Image: Rocket Lab

The new engine employs electric motors and lithium polymer batteries to drive its turbopumps, according to a company press release. It is the first oxygen and hydrocarbon engine to use 3D printing for all primary components, the company says.

Electron is a small rocket compared to SpaceX's system for launching payloads to the International Space Station. It is about 66 feet in length, 3.2 feet in diameter and has a lift off mass of a little more than 23,000 pounds. The vehicle is capable of delivering payloads of up to 220 pounds, or 100 kilograms, to low earth orbit.

Beck says Rocket Lab is designing its Electron Rocket system to appeal to companies like SkyBox and PlanetIQ, both of which aim to launch large constellations of cubesats.

“We spoke to all of those guys and said, 'OK, what do you need for your business to really go?'" The overwhelming answer was that they are seeking reliable launch capabilities, Beck adds.

Currently, SkyBox and other companies are hitching rides on other rocket launches, which means they are at the mercy of other companies' launch schedules, mechanical snafus and other hiccups.

“We need frequent, reliable launches,” Beck says in his heavy kiwi accent. This is difficult to accomplish in the U.S., since there are so many restrictions on launching rockets into low earth orbit in a country with copious amounts of air and sea traffic, both of which can scuttle launches, he continues.

The Helheim Glacier in Greenland as viewed from a SkyBox Imaging satellite in 2014. Image: SkyBox Imaging

In New Zealand, Beck says, “we can launch as frequently as we like” while paying a government fee. “That’s really key to solving the problem of accessible launch to space."

"At the moment, we really are the New Zealand space industry."

Rocket Lab is aiming for the first flight of its Electron Rocket to take place at the end of the year, and boasts 30 commitments from companies, although it won't go into detail on any contracts.

The price Rocket Lab is charging for its launch services is aimed at beating the companies that cubesat manufacturers are relying on to carry their spacecraft into orbit, at about $4.9 million for a 100 kilogram (220 pound) payload.

PlanetIQ, a Maryland-based company that is seeking to build a fleet a small weather satellites, told Mashable that it is looking at Rocket Lab as a promising potential launch partner.

“Rocket Lab is developing exactly the kind of launch capabilities the small satellite market is looking for — a ride to where we need to go, when we need to go, and for a reasonable price point. PlanetiQ looks forward to working with Rocket Lab in the future,” said PlanetiQ 's president and CEO, Anne Hale Miglarese, in a statement to Mashable.

Venture capital support

Rocket Lab is supported by at least two prominent venture capital firms, Khosla Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners. It also has Series B funding from Lockheed, which is a provider of large and expensive satellite technology to the U.S. government.

Their investment may be an indication that they are seeking to, at the very least, keep close tabs on the burgeoning private sector space companies.

Although venture capital firms are now convinced that the space sector is a suitable area of investment, there are still major risks in this area, including with Rocket Lab. Any space venture is vulnerable to launch failures, delays or regulatory impediments. Rocket Lab has been around since 2008, which makes it older than some of the companies that are seeking to hitch a ride with the company's product. It is aiming for a launch date of its Electron rocket by the end of 2015, and any delay could potentially open the door for a competitor or disappoint investors.

Yet Jim Cantrell, who conducted the due diligence analysis on Rocket Lab for Bessemer Venture Partners and is a consultant to PlanetiQ, says he was blown away by what the company is doing.

"I'm very familiar with what they’re doing and was frankly extraordinarily impressed," he told Mashable in an interview. "They blew my mind… I think they’ve got the potential to be the next SpaceX."

He says the company has a distinct advantage compared to competitors like Firefly, SpaceX and, to some extent, Virgin Galactic: It is narrowly focused on serving the emerging cubesat market and is pursuing novel manufacturing methods to do so.

Peter Beck of Rocket Lab. Image: Rocket Lab

Cantrell says what's happening now in the satellite sector is similar to what has happened in the hardware and software industry, where Moore's law, which holds that computer processor speeds double every two years, is "finally catching up with the space industry."

In his view, SpaceX uses a largely conventional technological approach but in an unconventional way, which is different than RocketLab. Cantrell was an investor in SpaceX, and Bessemer was an early investor in SkyBox Imaging.

“They’re really, truly revolutionary and people are flocking to them," he said of Rocket Lab. “Really there is no direct competitor."

Cantrell would not disclose the amount of venture capital funding for Rocket Lab, saying only that it is somewhere between $10 and $100 million.