Rocket Lab, one of several firms vying for a share of the burgeoning small-satellite launcher business, reached orbit and unleashed small satellites for the first time with its Electron rocket Jan. 21.
Minutes after its afternoon liftoff from New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula, the “Still Testing” Electron deployed a Planet Dove Pioneer satellite for Earth imaging and two Spire Lemur-2 satellites for weather and ship tracking.
The launch “marks the beginning of a new era in commercial access to space,” said Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s founder and chief executive officer. “Rocket Lab was founded on the principal of opening access to space to better understand our planet and improve life on it. [On Jan. 21], we took a significant step towards that.”
The launch was the Electron’s second. During the first flight, which occurred in May, the rocket made it into space but did not reach orbit because a ground equipment glitch forced the flight to end early (Defense Daily, Aug. 7, 2017).
Rocket Lab said it has five Electrons in production and will conduct the next launch early this year. Rocket Lab, which is based in Huntington Beach, Calif., and Auckland, New Zealand, eventually wants to launch more than 50 times a year to deliver small satellites to low Earth orbit.
Rocket Lab competitors hope to make news of their own soon. Arizona-based Vector Space Systems plans to conduct the first orbital flight of its Vector-R rocket in July. California-based Virgin Orbit intends to fly its air-launched LauncherOne rocket for the first time in the first half of 2018.