Peter's Promise

Rocket Lab started launching astronauts to orbit back in the 2020s on their Neutron booster. 

Over the years, they have had several human-rated orbital spacecraft designs, but the Kiwi series was their most successful. It has gone through nine iterations so far (named Kiwi 1, Kiwi 2, etc.).

The Kiwi 3 is back in orbit again, flying formation with an old Dragon spacecraft.

When I was training for my first EVA certification, I had a chance to fly on an old Kiwi 3 orbiter that the Rocket Team purchased as surplus. Our engineering students rebuilt it for low Earth orbit (LEO) training flights.

When it was ready to fly, we held a contest and named it "Peter's Promise." The winning entry reminded us that Rocket Lab's founder, Peter Beck, always liked to say, "When we say we're going to do something, we do it."

We lifted off on an equally old Neutron booster that had launched 83 times already. Since the Neutron design kept launch stress low on its seven Archimedes engines, they could fly dozens of times before repairs were needed.

We also got the booster cheap and used it as part of the ground crew training program.

Hard to believe, but I bet it will still be flying when my kids go into space.

There are lots of modern spacecraft that can outperform our old Kiwi 3, but Peter's Promise just keeps on delivering. 

More about Rocket Lab here: https://www.rocketlabusa.com/

(Full disclosure:  Mickey Kulp, the guy that writes the Rocket Team books, is a Rocket Lab investor.  But even if he wasn't, he'd still wish them well.)