Steve Hammer
January twenty fourth, 2023
Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket takes to the skies above Virgina to ship a number of satellites into low Earth orbit for Hawkeye 360. Credit score: Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab launched its first Electron rocket from america, sending satellites into orbit for the corporate Hawkeye 360.
Liftoff occurred at 5 p.m. EST (23:00 UTC) Jan. 24 from Launch Complex 2 on the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island on Virginia’s Japanese Shore.
Dubbed “Virginia is for Launch Lovers” — a play on Virginia’s tourism slogan, “Virginia is for Lovers” — the small rocket had as its payload a trio of satellites that may type Cluster 6 for Virginia-based Hawkeye 360, a knowledge analytics firm. This flight marks the primary of three launches for the corporate’s rising constellation used to watch radio frequencies.
The payload fairing for the Rocket Lab Electron launch “Virginia is for Launch Lovers.” Credit score: Rocket Lab
Electron is a extremely profitable rocket designed to place smaller payloads into low earth orbit. The carbon composite rocket consists of three levels.
The primary stage is the biggest and makes use of 9 Rutherford engines, whereas the smaller second stage makes use of one Rutherford. The ultimate kick stage is powered by a Curie engine and is used to position the payloads in a extremely exact orbit.
Whereas that is the primary launch of the Electron from the U.S., it has efficiently been putting small satellites into orbit since 2017 from Rocket Lab’s personal Launch Complicated 1 in New Zealand — with 32 launches to date and 152 satellites successfully deployed.
Rocket Lab’s arrival on the Japanese Shore marks a brand new chapter within the wealthy historical past of rocket launches from Wallops. Together with the development of LC-2, different new services constructed by Rocket Lab embody a mission management complicated and a horizontal integration facility.
This new building is anticipated to allow the corporate to launch as many as 12 rockets a yr from Wallops.
Along with the brand new services for Electron, the corporate can be working to develop its much-larger Neutron rocket, which is anticipated to be each produced and launched from Wallops.
LC-2 is situated adjoining to Pad 0A on the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, which currently hosts Northrop Grumman’s Antares 230+ rocket that sends Cygnus cargo resupply ships to the International Space Station. The pad was accomplished in late 2019, however the pandemic and certification of its autonomous flight termination system software program delayed the opening.
Within the close to future, LC-2 appears to turn into the busier of the 2 pads as Northrop Grumman will launch its final Antares 230+ rocket within the spring of 2023, then start work on rebuilding the rocket into its 330 configuration, which can seemingly take a number of years.
Video courtesy of Rocket Lab
Steve Hammer
Steve moved to central Virginia from the Atlanta suburbs. He studied U.S. historical past, geography and social sciences at Virginia Tech and started educating within the public faculty system in Southampton County, in Virginia’s Tidewater area. Whereas there, he developed a ardour for images specializing in transportation and something historic. With encouragement from household and pals, he moved backed to central Virginia the place he presently lives and works as a pc science trainer. In his spare time, Steve enjoys spending time together with his household and exploring the attractive Virginia county facet together with his digital camera.
