Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab just completed its 8th successful launch of the year. “It Argos Up From Here” saw their Electron rocket put ARGOS-4 into orbit for the NOAA.

Rocket Lab, the leader of the SmallSat launch market, has completed its “Back to Back” launch campaign for the National Reconnaissance Office. This marks a major cadence milestone for the company working to become the SpaceX of SmallSat launches.

Rocket Lab launched the first Artemis program mission, called CAPSTONE, from its launch site in New Zealand on June 28. Its purpose? Testing out the orbit and procedures for where NASA’s proposed Gateway space station will be.

Earlier today, Rocket Lab launched its ‘There and Back Again’ mission. This was the first Electron launch to feature an air-based recovery, using a helicopter to catch the first stage that was descending under parachute. While the catch seemed good, and Rocket Lab confirmed success, groans heard from mission control made it clear that all was not quite as expected.

Reusability is a growing trend in spaceflight – from reusable capsules, space planes, and rocket boosters. Rocket Lab is going all-in on reusability with its Neutron rocket, as is SpaceX with its Starship, but before then, Rocket Lab has adapted and improved its Electron rocket for recovery and reuse.

Rocket Lab announced a new agreement to launch fifteen satellites for HawkEye 360, a Virginia-based geospatial analytics company. The first of these mission, which will be a rideshare mission, is expected to launch no earlier than December 2022, and will be the company’s first launch from the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia.

In a ceremony on Monday, Rocket Lab broke ground on a new facility for the company’s upcoming Neutron rocket. Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck was joined by Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, the director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Dennis Andrucyk, the director of Wallops Flight Facility Dave Pierce, and others for the groundbreaking ceremony.

Announced on April 2, Rocket Lab‘s next launch of its Electron rocket will feature the first stage mid-air recovery of the rocket’s first stage. Here is how Rocket Lab will attempt to catch and reuse its smallsat rockets.

Rocket Lab announced on February 28 that it will build, launch, and land its Neutron rocket in Virginia near NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility and the company’s US-based launch complex.

Rocket Lab has been working on adding multiple launch locations for its Electron rocket for the past few years. Finally, the company’s second pad in New Zealand is ready, and Rocket Lab is showing it off with dual rockets.

Reusability in spaceflight is increasing. While SpaceX has been able to reuse the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket by landing them, Rocket Lab is taking a different sort of approach with its Electron rocket: deploying a parachute and using a helicopter to scoop them out of the air.

It’s certainly a different approach than landing, but Rocket Lab teams are hard at work making this reusability a reality.

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.