Rocket Lab USA Inc. completed two launches from different hemispheres within seven days of each other – the quickest turnaround in the company’s history.
Just a week after an Electron rocket made by the Long Beach aerospace company took off from Virginia, it was launching another one from New Zealand.
“Launching two successful missions just seven days apart from two different hemispheres is a real demonstration of responsive space in action,” Rocket Lab founder and Chief Executive Peter Beck said in a statement.
The first mission — dubbed “Stronger Together” — was launched on March 16 from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 2 at Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport within NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. The Electron rocket deployed two 100-kilogram satellites to low-Earth orbit for Capella Space.
“This year we’re really picking up the launch pace, so while one Electron was on the pad at Launch Complex 2 for Capella Space, the team in New Zealand had been preparing the next rocket at Launch Complex 1 to enable two launches from two continents within days of each other,” Beck said. “Dedicated and responsive space access for small sats is here now, made possible by Electron.”
“Stronger Together” was Rocket Lab’s second mission from Launch Complex 2, following the company’s first mission from U.S. soil in January. It was the 34th mission of the Electron rocket.
The 35th mission took place on March 24 from Rocket Lab’s launch site on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula.
“The Beat Goes On” mission placed two satellites from Virginia-based BlackSky Technology Inc. into low-Earth orbit.
“Electron has repeatedly proven itself as a reliable constellation builder, and today we’re proud to deliver mission success once again for BlackSky and Spaceflight after many previous missions together,” Beck said in his statement.
“The Beat Goes On” was Rocket Lab’s seventh launch for BlackSky since 2019, helping to build out the company’s growing real-time geospatial intelligence constellation, which now numbers 16 satellites.
Rocket Lab is on track this year to surpass its launch record of nine launches set in 2022 with 15 planned launches.
Upcoming Electron missions in 2023 include two launches for the NASA Tropics constellation; the first of five dedicated missions for French-based Internet-of-Things connectivity provider Kinéis; several launches for Capella Space; and the launch of a mission to demonstrate space debris-removal technology by Astroscale Japan, which is based in Tokyo.
