30th Electron Rocket Launched by Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab successfully launched its 30th Electron Rocket carrying the 150th satellite payload to orbit.
"From launching Synspective’s first demonstration spacecraft to now helping to build their SAR constellation with this launch of their first commercial StriX satellite, it’s an honor to once again be the trusted launch partner for Synspective."
Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Peter Beck.
“The Owl Spreads Its Wings” dedicated mission for Japanese Earth-observation company Synspective launched on the Electron rocket from Pad B at Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 at 20:38 UTC, September 15, 2022. The mission successfully deployed a single spacecraft, the StriX-1 satellite, to a 563km circular Earth orbit, where it will join other StriX satellites launched by Rocket Lab in February 2022 and December 2020 as part of Synspective’s Earth-observation satellite constellation.
The mission was the second of a bulk buy of three Electron launches by Synspective to deliver their StriX satellites to low Earth orbit. StriX-1 is Synspective’s first commercial satellite for its synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite constellation to deliver imagery that can detect millimeter-level changes to the Earth’s surface from space, independent of weather conditions on Earth and at any time of the day or night. “The Owl Spreads Its Wings” was Rocket Lab’s third mission for Synspective after successful launches in December 2020 and February 2022.
"From launching Synspective’s first demonstration spacecraft to now helping to build their SAR constellation with this launch of their first commercial StriX satellite, it’s an honor to once again be the trusted launch partner for Synspective," Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Peter Beck said when the mission was announced. "As the sole payload on this dedicated Electron launch, Synspective are able to build their constellation to a specific LTAN (Local Time of the Ascending Node) that couldn’t be achieved if StriX was launched on a rideshare mission with other satellites – a highly important differentiator when building a new satellite constellation.”
30th Electron Rocket Launch is the Seventh in 2022
“The Owl Spreads Its Wings” is Rocket Lab’s seventh Electron launch this year with a 100% mission success rate for 2022. With today’s 30th Electron launch and 150th satellite delivered to orbit, the mission also marked the 300th Rutherford engine flown to space on Electron. Designed and built by Rocket Lab, Rutherford is the world’s first 3D-printed, electric pump-fed orbital rocket engine. Earlier this month Rocket Lab successfully test fired a reused Rutherford first stage engine for the first time. This is a significant technical achievement as Rocket Lab develops Electron into the world’s first reusable orbital small rocket.
Among the Company’s scheduled missions on the 2022 manifest is another attempt at recovering an Electron rocket with a helicopter and the first Electron mission from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 2 in Wallops Island, Virginia.
(Source: Rocket Lab USA news release. Images provided and from file)