Rocket Lab’s next Electron launch, set for December 12, is called ‘The Owl’s Night Begins’

Rocket Lab has announced that its next Electron launch will take place on December 12 at 5:09 a.m. EST. The mission, named “The Owl’s Night Begins,” will mark Rocket Lab’s 17th overall mission.

The goal of The Owl’s Night Begins mission is to carry StriX-α, a Japanese Earth-imaging satellite, into space. The satellite is from a company by the name of Synspective, and it will be used for collecting data of metropolitan areas all across Asia on a daily basis. That data will then be used for urban development planning, construction monitoring, and disaster response.

The mission is called The Owl’s Night Begins due to the satellite’s name, StriX, which is a genus of owls. It is also a reference to the synthetic aperture radar that the StriX satellite utilizes to capture millimeter-level changes of the Earth’s surface.

For those of you who watched Rocket Lab’s previous Electron launch on November 19, you will remember that the company recovered the first stage. However, Rocket Lab has already stated in a tweet that a recovery attempt will not be made for The Owl’s Night Begins mission. It was also stated that the next planned first-stage recovery attempt will happen “early next year.”

During the launch on December 12, you will be able to livestream the action at this link. For the time being, the link currently shows a replay of the previous Electron launch discussed above, so you can check that out in the meantime.

Via Rocket Lab