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Rocket Lab USA, Inc., a leading launch and space systems company, has delivered its 30th mission and 150th satellite to orbit following its latest successful Electron launch earlier today.
“The Owl Spreads Its Wings” dedicated mission for Japanese Earth-observation company Synspective launched on the Electron rocket from Pad B at Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 at 20:38 UTC, September 15, 2022. The mission successfully deployed a single spacecraft, the StriX-1 satellite, to a 563km circular Earth orbit, where it will join other StriX satellites launched by Rocket Lab in February 2022 and December 2020 as part of Synspective’s Earth-observation satellite constellation.
“The Owl Spreads Its Wings” is Rocket Lab’s seventh Electron launch this year with a 100% mission success rate for 2022. With today’s 30th Electron launch and 150th satellite delivered to orbit, the mission also marked the 300th Rutherford engine flown to space on Electron. Designed and built by Rocket Lab, Rutherford is the world’s first 3D-printed, electric pump-fed orbital rocket engine. Earlier this month Rocket Lab successfully test fired a reused Rutherford first stage engine for the first time. This is a significant technical achievement as Rocket Lab develops Electron into the world’s first reusable orbital small rocket.
Among the Company’s scheduled missions on the 2022 manifest is another attempt at recovering an Electron rocket with a helicopter and the first Electron mission from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 2 in Wallops Island, Virginia.
