Rocket Lab, everyone’s favorite US / New Zealand-based smallsat launcher, announced the first launch of its Electron rocket for the year, and yes, it’s going to be BlackSky satellites.
Starting Wednesday morning, we saw three launches from three different continents within 24 hours. It all started in Russia with a launch to the International Space Station on a Soyuz rocket.
This week we saw new contracts from NASA, Rocket Lab’s groundbreaking design for Neutron, SpaceX pizza, and oh yeah there was an email from Elon Musk about Starship. Catch up on this week’s top stories below.
As promised, Rocket Lab gave us the details on its next generation rocket called Neutron. One thing that’s certain is everything has changed compared to its current Electron launch system.
On this Thanksgiving week we had some major events and updates come from the spaceflight industry. Catch up on what happened below.
This week, Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck shared his thoughts on reusable rockets and shared a new shiny Electron design during a press conference.
The company that disrupted the smallsat launch industry with its dedicated launcher plans to make the jump to a medium-class launcher. Rocket Lab announced the update would take place on December 2. Read below to learn what we know so far about Rocket Lab’s upcoming Neutron launcher.
A few hours after the launch of SpaceX’s Crew-3, Rocket Lab plans to launch one of its rockets from New Zealand. The California-headquartered small satellite launcher will use its Electron rocket to place two second-generation BlackSky satellites into orbit. Electron’s launch will also sport a booster recovery. This will be Rocket Lab’s third recovery of an Electron booster and will be the first to have a helicopter nearby. While the booster will not be caught by the helicopter, instead, it will splashdown in the ocean. This is a step towards mid-air capture by a helicopter.
Date: Tuesday, November 16
Rocket Lab announced launch windows for their upcoming back-to-back launches for BlackSky. The missions will both launch from LC-1, one of their launch facilities in New Zealand.
Rocket Lab, an American small sat launcher, won a contract to launch a demonstration mission for Astroscale. The mission will demonstrate Astroscales active debris removal for phase one of JAXA’s Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration Project.
The California-based smallsat launcher, Rocket Lab, announced Wednesday that they will be launching 5 missions for Internet-of-Things (IoT) connectivity provider Kinéis. This will make Rocket Lab the exclusive launcher of Kinéis’
The dedicated smallsat launcher, Rocket Lab, announced last Tuesday that they will try to push their launch schedule with a rapid succession of missions starting later this month.
After a failure in the second stage during their “Running Out Of Toes” mission earlier this year. Rocket Lab is planning to return with a now improved system this week. The mission will carry a test satellite for the United States Space Force to evaluate new sensor technology. In tradition with Rocket Lab’s fun naming style, this launch will be named “It’s A Little Chile Up Here”. This is in honor of the green chile of New Mexico where the Space Force’s Space Test Program is based.
Date: Thursday, July 29th at 4:00 a.m. EDT (2-hour window)
This week, the focus has been on Blue Origin. On Tuesday, they completed the first crewed flight of New Shepard, flying the oldest and youngest person to ever visit space.
In May of this year, Rocket Lab attempted to launch their 20th mission to space. The mission ended with failure of the Electron’s upper stage, but now they are ready to move on to their next flight.
Rocket Lab is continuing progress on their latest launch pad located at their New Zealand facility, LC-1B, with the installation of the strongback. The Electron launch vehicle has been grounded since an in-flight failure of the second stage engine. The anomaly investigation is still underway, but the FAA has cleared Electron for flight.
Late last week, Rocket Lab launched its 20th Electron mission and their second Electron to be recovered. While the mission failed during the second stage burn, the first stage’s secondary mission seems successful.
It’s a tough day for the folks at Rocket Lab. After a successful liftoff from New Zealand, the California rocket company experienced another failure of its Electron second stage. This sadly means that the payload, two BlackSky satellites, were lost during the mission.
Late last year Rocket Lab attempted its first recovery of an Electron rocket. Under the power of parachutes, the “Return to Sender” booster splashed down off the coast of New Zealand. While this booster didn’t return in a perfect reusable state, their next booster might fair better.
On the success of Rocket Lab’s most recent mission “They Go Up So Fast” the California-based launch provider announced that it will launch more global monitoring satellites for BlackSky. This is the biggest number of satellites the company has committed to launching to a single provider so far.
Rocket Lab is preparing for the 19th Mission of their Electron later today, at 6:30 pm Eastern time. This rideshare launch, “They Go Up So Fast”, will deliver 7 satellites into orbit for customers including BlackSky, the University of New South Wales, and the US Army’s Space and Missile Defense command.
The launch provider that has made themselves famous for launching dedicated missions for SmallSats on their Electron rocket is moving up to a new market. In a video Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck announced they are building a medium-class launch vehicle that will be able to launch not just heavier and larger satellites but also in the future crew.
Today Rocket Lab shared the mission name and patch for their first flight of an Electron rocket in 2021.
After a busy year for the newer small sat launcher, Rocket Lab released a video recapping all of their achievements over 2020.
The California based small sat launcher provider conducted seven launches across 2020 and experienced its first failure of the Electron in flight. Rocket Lab was able to return to flying just two months later. While headquartered in California, Rocket Lab currently conducts most of its operations in New Zealand where they have their own launch complex with one operational launch pad with a second pad nearing completion.
Science YouTuber Scott Manley sat down with Rocket Lab CEO to talk about their year of launches while playing the popular space simulation game Kerbal Space Program.
Rocket Lab will kick off its 17th Electron launch this morning with its “The Owls Night Begins” mission. Currently, liftoff is scheduled to occur at 2:09 a.m. PST/5:09 a.m. ET from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand.
Shortly after Rocket Lab successfully launched its “Return to Sender” mission last week, the company shared today that it had successfully recovered the booster. This is the first time in Rocket Lab’s history that it has recovered a flight proven rocket booster. Rocket Lab joins the ranks of SpaceX in executing booster recovery with intent to re-fly.
Rocket Lab’s latest video from space is only 32-seconds long, but you may want to set aside several minutes to roll the tape a few hundred times. It’s that good. The launch company shared the first-ever look at booster stage separation of its Electron rocket from space. Visually and sonically, you have to experience this for yourself.
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.
Today, the California-based company Rocket Lab will attempt its most ambitious launch yet. The company will be launching 30 satellites, a 3D-printed gnome, and attempting its first recovery of a first-stage booster.
A titanium garden gnome from Half-Life won’t be the only thing unique about Rocket Lab’s upcoming Electron launch. The 16th launch of Electron will also mark the first mission in which Rocket Lab attempts to recover a first stage booster SpaceX style.
Rocket Lab’s 16th Electron mission will be a must-watch event when the small-sat launcher lifts off later this month. Gabe Newell, co-founder of game development company Valve, is donating $1 to charity for every viewer who watches the launch stream. What’s the Valve connection? Rocket Lab can explain:
Though they will not be launching from US soil just yet, the California-based rocket company plans to launch 10 CubeSats into low Earth orbit from their launch complex in Mahia, New Zealand. This mission will be its second since they experienced an in-flight failure in July.
California-based launch company Rocket Lab experienced an unexpected loss of vehicle in space after a successful liftoff from New Zealand in July. The development halted Rocket Lab’s increasingly steady cadence of sending customer payloads to space, but a quick discovery of the issue at fault minimized the launch provider’s time grounded.
Later this week, Rocket Lab will attempt its 14th Electron rocket mission from Launch Complex 1 at the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. The mission called ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not Optical!’ will deploy a satellite called Sequoia for Capella Space.
Rocket Lab ended its streak of 11 successful Electron rocket launches in a row on Saturday, July 4. The 13th flight of Electron resulted in a loss of vehicle about 10 minutes after what appeared to be a successful launch.
Update July 2: Rocket Lab is pushing the launch back two days to July 5 in hopes of better launch weather conditions.
Update July 3: Now the launch is set for July 4! Watch live below:
Update 3: July 4: Rocket Lab reports a loss of vehicle and payload during the mission. More details to come.
Rocket Lab will be ready for its next launch just three weeks after Saturday’s mission “Don’t Stop Me Now,” reinforcing the increasingly fast launch capabilities of the small satellite launch company.
The new mission is named “Pics Or It Didn’t Happen” after the number of Earth imaging satellites being deployed in space. The next Electron launch is scheduled to take place from Launch Complex 1 Pad A at the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand on July 3.
Updates June 10-June 12:
Rocket Lab plans to launch payloads into space for three customers including NASA this week from its launch site in New Zealand. The small satellite launch service provider will use its Electron rocket to deploy satellites in Earth orbit on a mission called “Don’t Stop Me Now” as soon as Thursday, June 11.
