Rocket Lab USA Inc. reached a milestone late last month with the 50th launch of its Electron rocket.
The “No Time Toulouse” mission lifted off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand, at 6:13 a.m. on June 21, successfully deploying five satellites to a 635-kilometer circular orbit for French Internet-of-Things company Kinéis.
Electron reached 50 launches faster than any commercially developed rocket in history, the Long Beach launch provider said.
Rocket Lab founder and Chief Executive Peter Beck congratulated the team and gave a thank you to the company’s customers and supporters for helping it to continue to break records and set new industry standards.
“Making it to 50 launches faster than any commercially developed rocket in history is testament to the incredible team we have behind us,” Beck said in a statement. “Today’s precise, tailored mission for Kinéis is yet another demonstration of the value Electron continues to provide to the small satellite community.”
While the Falcon 9 from Hawthorne-based SpaceX has flown more than 50 times this year, it took nearly eight years for it to fly its first 50 missions. In comparison, Rocket Lab reached the 50-flight milestone in about seven years, while the Atlas V rocket took just over nine years and the space shuttle took 11 years. The Electron’s first flight was in May 2017, when it reached space but failed to make it to Earth orbit. The second flight of Electron took place in January 2018, when it successfully deployed two satellites into Earth orbit.
The “No Time Toulouse” mission was the first of five dedicated Electron launches for Kinéis, a company backed by private and public investors including the French government’s space agency Centre National d’Études Spatiales and Collecte Localisation Satellites, an international space-based solutions provider, to improve global Internet-of-Things connectivity, according to a Rocket Lab release.
The Kinéis constellation is designed to make it possible to connect and locate any connected object anywhere in the world, enabling data transmission to users in near-real time, at low bit rates and with very low energy consumption, the company’s release said.
“By enabling internet connection to the Earth’s most remote locations, the Kinéis constellation can support forest fire detection, water resource management, infrastructure and energy network monitoring, transport and logistics tracking, and much more,” Rocket Lab said in its release.
When Electron lifted off the pad for the first time in 2017, Beck said he knew that he’d unlocked a new era in spaceflight, one where small satellites got to the call shots for the first time with frequent and reliable access to orbit.
“Fifty launches later Electron is the most successful commercial small rocket globally,” Beck said in a statement.
On June 17, Rocket Lab signed its largest Electron launch agreement in the company’s history: a 10-launch deal with Japanese Earth observation company Synspective.
The Long Beach company has been the sole provider of launches for the Tokyo-based firm, putting four satellites up to date, with another two scheduled for this year. The launches in the new deal will take place starting next year and go until 2027.
