The National Reconnaissance Office has awarded Rocket Lab a contract to send small satellites to orbit as part of two back-to-back missions in spring 2021.
Rocket Lab is scheduled to deploy seven small satellites on July 3, three weeks after sending five payloads into orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office, NASA and the Australian government.
Rocket Lab has launched satellites from NASA, the National Reconnaissance Office and the Australian government as part of a rideshare mission dubbed “Don’t Stop Me Now," C4ISRNET reported Sunday.
Rocket Lab's Electron launch vehicle is slated to send satellite payloads from NASA, the National Reconnaissance Office and the Australian government to orbit as part of the “Don’t Stop Me Now†mission in early June.
Peter Beck, founder and CEO of small satellite launch firm Rocket Lab, said the Department of Defense and other agencies could help the small launch sector by funding space programs that will drive demand for launch services, SpaceNews reported Monday.
Rocket Lab has handed over to Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport the Electron launch vehicle in preparation for a U.S. Space Force mission in the third quarter of the year.
Rocket Lab has received Category 1 certification from NASA for its Electron launch vehicle. The certification was awarded after Rocket Lab’s Electron vehicle delivered 13 NASA CubeSats to orbit in December 2018 as part of the ELaNa-19 mission and following the completion of a review of the company’s rocket production processes and facilities in 2019, the company said Tuesday.
Capella Space andRocket Lab entered into an agreement to launch a synthetic aperture radar satellite that will work to optimize the monitoring of key regions across the globe.
Rocket Lab has launched its Electron rocket carrying payload from the National Reconnaissance Office as part of the “Birds of a Feather†mission, which serves as the rocket's first for 2020 and 11th to date.