Rocket Lab USA Inc. has been selected by a Virginia company to launch three missions for its constellation of radio frequency-monitoring satellites.
Terms of the deal between Rocket Lab, based in Long Beach, and Herndon, Virginia-based HawkEye 360 were not disclosed.
The multi-launch contract calls for Rocket Lab to launch 15 satellites to low-earth orbit in three Electron missions anticipated to take place between late 2022 and 2024.
The 59-foot Electron rocket is made of carbon composite material and can carry more than 600 pounds of payload to low-earth orbit. It is launched from two sites in New Zealand, although Rocket Lab will also launch from Wallops Island, Virginia, beginning no earlier than December of this year.
The first of the three missions for HawkEye 360 will take off from the company’s Launch Complex 2 on Wallops Island, ushering in an era of Rocket Lab launches from the U.S., according to a release from the company.
Rocket Lab Chief Executive Peter Beck said the company was looking forward to adding HawkEye 360 to the Electron manifest and excited about the launch from Wallops Island.
Operating multiple Electron launch sites across both hemispheres adds a level of flexibility for the company’s customers and delivers assured access to space, something that is becoming critical as launch availability shrinks worldwide, he added.
“This contract also demonstrates continued execution on our vertical integration strategy, in this case bringing reliable launch and flight-proven separation systems under one roof to streamline the integration and launch process for HawkEye 360,” Beck said in a statement.
HawkEye 360 Chief Operating Officer Rob Rainhart said that the company was excited about joining the inaugural launch from Virginia, its home state.
“Rocket Lab provides the flexibility we need to fill out our constellation and reach our desired orbits,” Rainhart said in a statement. “Their service will drive down our revisit rates in midlatitude AOIs, bringing a higher density of data to our customers.”
The missions launched by Rocket Lab will grow HawkEye 360’s constellation, or group, of radio frequency-monitoring satellites, enabling the company to better deliver precise mapping of radio frequency emissions anywhere in the world, according to the Rocket Lab release.
By combining radio frequency emissions data with its analytical tools and algorithms, HawkEye 360 provides commercial and government customers with insights that have helped to detect illegal fishing, poachers in national parks, GPS radio frequency interference along international borders, and emergency beacons in crisis situations, the release said.
This agreement is the latest multi-launch contract for Rocket Lab, adding to a contract for five dedicated Electron missions for global Internet-of-Things connectivity provider Kinéis in Toulouse, France, to be launched from 2023 onward, as well as one for three dedicated missions for Earth-imaging company Synspective Inc. in Tokyo, the first of which was launched in February 2022, the release added.
