Five Electron Launches Purchased by BlackSky

Five Electron launches have been purchased from Rocket Lab by BlackSky in a block buy. Rocket Lab has launched six Electron missions for BlackSky since 2019, becoming the primary launch provider for BlackSky’s constellation.

“Building and maintaining a constellation requires precision deployment to unique orbits and a dependable launch schedule."

Peter Beck, Rocket Lab

With these additional five Electron launches added to the manifest, BlackSky has contracted more Electron launches than any other single commercial customer. The launches are expected to begin in 2024 from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand.

“After four years of launching for BlackSky, we’re delighted to continue our partnership with more dedicated launches on Electron,” said Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck. “Building and maintaining a constellation requires precision deployment to unique orbits and a dependable launch schedule. We’re proud to deliver this dependable and tailored capability launch after launch, year after year.”

Five Electron Launches Added to a Busy 2024 Manifest

The five BlackSky Electron launches join a busy Electron manifest in 2024 featuring missions for commercial constellation operators Capella Space, Kinéis, Hawkeye 360, and Synspective, as well as a variety of government missions.

BlackSky’s next-generation Gen-3 satellites are designed to produce images with up to 35-centimeter resolution. Increased resolution and enhanced spectral diversity extend BlackSky’s ability to provide real-time insights to its customers in a broad set of conditions, including nighttime, low light and challenging weather.

In a related story, Rocket Lab has signed a new launch services agreement with a confidential customer for a HASTE (Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron) mission from Launch Complex 2 at Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport within NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in 2024.

The contract signing with a new customer came just days after Rocket Lab successfully launched the first HASTE mission on 17 June 2023 for Leidos under the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed (MACH-TB) program. The mission was Rocket Lab’s third mission from Launch Complex 2 at Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport since the Company began launches from U.S. soil in January this year, demonstrating rapid and reliable launch capability for government and commercial programs.

(Source: Rocket Lab news releases. Images provided and from file)