Two more private Earth-observation satellites were sent skyward by Rocket Lab.
The rocket lab electron launch vehicle lifted off at 8:41a.m. The local time was 1:10 a.m. from the company's Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand's Mahia Pensula. There is a launch site on Sunday.
The two-stage Electron rocket was used for BlackSky. About 40 minutes after liftoff, they were successfully deployed.
After the successful launch, Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck wrote on his account thatloads deployed another 100% mission success by the team.
There are photos of the rocket lab and its booster.
Rocket Lab did not attempt to recover the first stage during this launch. In the future, Rocket Lab will use a helicopter to pick up falling Electron first stages out of the sky, as it has already done ocean booster recoveries on several previous missions.
BlackSky and Rocket Lab have been partners for a long time, as Electrons have delivered most of BlackSky's constellation to space.
BlackSky's proprietary constellation has one of the highest hourly revisit rates in the world, providing customers with persistent monitoring and change detection over areas of economic activity across the globe.
Government agencies use BlackSky satellites along with a set of large companies known as the Global 2000. BlackSky uses artificial intelligence techniques to automate the detection of fast-changing information for its customers.
BlackSky is supporting critical day-to-day decision-making across a range of applications that include homeland security, supply chain intelligence, crisis management and response, critical infrastructure and economic intelligence.
BlackSky is one of the companies that helps the world monitor the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"Without Mission A Beat" will deliver two @blacksky_inc payloads to low Earth orbit, building their constellation to 14 sats - the majority of which were deployed by Electron across missions from 2019.Launch window opens April 02 UTC, 12:10. More info: https://t.co/qMbrht2edH pic.twitter.com/g6k4DSjI3EMarch 31, 2022
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One of the upcoming missions will send three demonstration satellites aloft for E-Space in the second quarter of 2022.
According to the recently announced contract, E-Space aims to reduce the launch requirements for a full constellation to months instead of years, decreasing the time it takes to scale, replenish or deliver a full system.
The Internet of Things satellite provider Kin is one of the companies that Rocket Lab plans to launch on behalf of. Other future missions are focused on Venus exploration.
The launch took place just weeks after Rocket Lab announced it will build its next-generation Neutron rocket on Wallops Island, Virginia. A successful liftoff of an Electron booster was performed at the company's second launch pad in New Zealand.
The larger the payloads, the more they will go to space. The bigger Neutron rocket will be able to carry larger sets of satellites into space, along with fuel-hungry interplanetary missions and possibly even human missions. The first launch of Neutron will be in 2024.
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