Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Rocket Lab Plans Four Satellite Payload In October

Huntington Beach-based rocket launch startup Rocket Lab says it plans to carry four, Earth-imaging satellites into space, for its second test flight of its rocket. According to Rocket Lab, it plans to launch two Earth-imaging Dove satellites for Planet and two Lemur-2 satellites from Spire for weather mapping and ship traffic tracking on its next launch from New Zealand. The next launch is currently scheduled for sometime in October. The launch of those satellites--if successful--will be the first commercial delivery of payloads into space for Rocket Lab. The company said the next launch has a code name of "Still Testing". The company says it had a "successful" first flight in May, although at the time the company was force to terminate its test flight only four minutes into the launch. It later blamed that termination on a misconfiguration of equipment by a contractor.