Swedish Satellite Reaches Orbit on 32nd Electron Mission

A Swedish science satellite was successfully deployed by Rocket Lab on its 32nd Electron mission. The Swedish National Space Agency satellite was the 152nd spacecraft to be launched into orbit by the company.

“Congratulations to the teams at OHB Sweden and the Swedish National Space Agency on their mission.”

Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck.

"Catch Me If You Can" was Rocket Lab’s ninth mission of the year, adding to an already-record year of successful orbital launches for the Company. Rocket Lab remains on track to launch its first Electron mission from Virginia before the end of the year, on a mission for HawkEye360 that is scheduled to launch in December.

“Congratulations to the teams at OHB Sweden and the Swedish National Space Agency on their mission,” said Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck. “It’s been a long journey for MATS, so I’m proud of the Rocket Lab team for doing their part to support this mission with a fast contract-to-orbit turnaround of just four months.”

Booster Capture Attempt on Swedish Satellite Mission was Scrubbed

The mission to launch a Swedish science satellite also resulted in a successful ocean splashdown of the Electron rocket’s first stage. Rocket Lab had planned to attempt amid-air capture of Electron’s first stage with a helicopter if conditions allowed, however not all requirements were met to ensure a successful capture Due to a brief telemetry loss with Electron’s first stage during its atmospheric re-entry, the helicopter was moved out of the capture zone per standard safety procedure. The Electron first stage completed a safe splashdown and Rocket Lab’s recovery vessel brought it onboard and back to Rocket Lab’s production facility for inspection and analysis.

“Bringing a rocket back from space is a challenging task and capturing it mid-air with a helicopter is as complex as it sounds,” said Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Peter Beck. “The chances for success are much smaller than that of failure because many complex factors must perfectly align. We are proud to have successfully recovered our fifth rocket from the ocean now and we look forward to another mid-air capture attempt in future as we work toward making Electron a reusable rocket.

(Images provided with Rocket Lab news release and from file)