by Rocket Lab has just sent two more private Earth observation satellites into the sky.
A Rocket Lab Electron Launcher lifted off at 8:41 am Saturday (April 2). EST (1241 GMT) from the Company’s Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula. Local time was 1:10 a.m. Sunday morning at the launch site.
The two-stage Electron rocket carried two spacecraft for the Virginia company BlackSky. They were deployed successfully about 40 minutes after launch.
“Payloads marked another 100 percent mission success from the team,” said Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck wrote on Twitter after the successful start.
Related: Rocket Lab and its Electron Booster (Photos)
Rocket Lab, which dubbed this launch “Without Mission A Beat,” did not attempt to recover the first stage of the electron during this launch. (Eventually, Rocket Lab plans to use a helicopter to retrieve falling electron first stages from the sky; it has performed ocean booster salvage on several previous missions.)
BlackSky and Rocket Lab are longtime partners as Electrons has put most of the BlackSky constellation into orbit since 2019. Saturday’s mission was arranged for BlackSky by launch service provider Spaceflight Inc.
“BlackSky’s proprietary constellation has one of the highest hourly repetition rates in the world, providing customers with continuous monitoring and detection of changes in areas of economic activity around the world,” Rocket Lab said in its Without Mission a Beat press kit.
BlackSky satellites are used by government agencies along with a number of large corporations known as the Global 2000, according to Rocket Lab. The platform for BlackSky, dubbed Spectra AI, uses artificial intelligence techniques to automate the detection of rapidly changing information for its customers.
“BlackSky powers critical day-to-day decision making across a range of applications including homeland security, supply chain intelligence, crisis management and response, critical infrastructure and business intelligence,” said Rocket Lab.
BlackSky is also one of the companies that helped the world monitor the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24th.
Without Mission A Beat will launch two @blacksky_inc payloads into low Earth orbit, building their constellation to 14 sats – most of which have been used on missions by Electron as of 2019. The launch window opens on April 02 UTC 12:10. More information: https://t.co/qMbrht2edH pic.twitter.com/g6k4DSjI3EMarch 31, 2022
Rocket Lab has announced a number of upcoming missions, including one scheduled for Q2 2022 that will launch three demonstration satellites for the E-Space company.
“E-Space aims to reduce launch requirements for a full constellation to months rather than years – thereby reducing the time it takes to scale, populate, or deliver a full system,” Rocket Lab said of the recently announced Contract.
Rocket Lab also plans launches on behalf of Earth imaging company Synspective, for Internet of Things satellite provider Kinéis, and for government customers such as NASA and the US National Reconnaissance Office. Other future missions will focus on orbital debris mitigation and exploration of Venus, according to Rocket Lab’s manifesto.
Saturday’s launch came just weeks after Rocket Lab announced it would build its next-generation neutron rocket on Wallops Island, Virginia, near the company’s U.S. coastal launch pad. (The company also unveiled a new, second launch pad at its New Zealand site on Feb. 28 with a successful launch of an electron booster.)
Neutron, which will be reusable, will send larger payloads into orbit than Electron. Rocket Lab has said the larger neutron rocket will launch larger sets of satellites into orbit, along with fuel-hungry interplanetary missions and possibly even manned missions. Neutron’s planned first launch is in 2024.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @spacedotcom or Facebook.
