This Week in Launch: Rocket Lab hits the big 50

This week is a big week for Rocket Lab as it plans to launch its 50th Electron rocket, faster than any other company to date. SpaceX will also have a double header on Tuesday with a third mission on Thursday.

This week’s launches:

• June 18 (Tuesday)
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Astra 1P/SES-24 | 5:35 P.M. ET
    • SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 9-1 | 11:00 P.M. ET
    • SLC-4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
• June 20 (Thursday)
  • Rocket Lab | Electron | No Time Toulouse | 2:13 P.M. ET
    • LC-1B, Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand
• June 21 (Friday)
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 10-2 | 1:47 P.M. ET
    • SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
• June 22 (Saturday)
  • CASC | Long March 2C | SVOMA | 3:00 A.M. ET
    • LC-3, Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China

Rocket Lab gears up for 50 launch milestone

Rocket Lab is gearing up for its biggest launch milestone yet, 50 Electron launches. These of course don’t count HASTE suborbital missions, but do include the several failed flights Electron has launched over the years (kudos to Rocket Lab for admitting they’re not perfect).

The payload won’t be anything too special however, a launch of five CubeSats for the French Kinéis IoT constellation. Once completed, the constellation will field 25 satellites.

Rocket Lab has gone full in on hyping the space community up for this launch, flying in popular spaceflight photographers from the states to help in the coverage.

Rocket Lab claims to be the fastest company to make it to 50 launches, and if you look at the data, it’s true. The company even beat SpaceX by a few months. Although, SpaceX is still eating Rocket Lab’s cake with lower launch costs for its rideshare missions, making rockets like Electron extremely difficult to turn a profit.

While this mission milestone is huge for the company, its biggest steps will be the addition of its Neutron rocket, a medium lift rocket that will be more competitive with SpaceX. Testing is well underway and construction has begun on its launch site in Virginia, but it will still be sometime before its first launch, possibly a year.