Rocket Lab USA Inc. is blasting back into business after losing its 20th mission earlier this year with back-to-back missions for global monitoring provider BlackSky and a new deal with in-space manufacturing company Varda Space Industries.
The Long Beach, California-based aerospace company announced this week that its next mission will be the first of three Electron rocket launches for BlackSky slated to take place from late August through September. The three missions will mark Rocket Lab’s fastest launch turnarounds to date.
The first, dubbed “Love at First Insight,” will lift off from Launch Complex 1 on Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand carrying the eighth and ninth satellites in a planned BlackSky constellation that’s part of a multi-launch agreement between Rocket Lab and Spaceflight Inc., which is providing integration and mission management services for BlackSky. Rocket Lab will launch another four Gen-2 smallsats for BlackSky in two more missions in short succession.
“Rapid launch with these three back-to-back missions enables BlackSky to fast-track their plans for a constellation that meets the hunger for real-time data produced by multiple images within 24 hours, rather than one image at the same time each day,” said Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck in a statement.
The mission will be Rocket lab’s 22nd Electron launch overall and fifth mission of the year, and will bring the total number of satellites launched by the company to 107.
The announcement demonstrates BlackSky and Spaceflight’s continued confidence in Rocket Lab despite an anomaly during its last mission for the client that resulted in the loss of its payload. Both the Federal Aviation Administration and Rocket Lab have since investigated the incident and cleared the company to resume launches, starting with a successful mission for the U.S. Space Force last month.
“We’ve been partnering strongly with Rocket Lab over the past several months to gain high confidence in a launch campaign that will increase the capacity of our space network,” added BlackSky CEO Brian E. O’Toole.
Varda deal
Meanwhile, in a separate announcement, Rocket Lab said it has signed a deal to produce three of its Photon spacecraft to integrate with Varda’s space factories.
The Torrance-based startup aims to manufacture things like fiber optic cables, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors in space, then return them to Earth via a reentry capsule. Such high-value products deliver higher performance when produced in zero gravity.
Rocket Lab’s Photon will help by moving the spacecraft into operational orbit and handling station keeping, and by providing Varda’s 120-kilogram manufacturing and reentry modules with power, data and attitude control. Photon’s 3D-printed Curie engine will also perform multiple burns to guide the reentry capsule's return trajectory to Earth.
The Photons will also use Rocket Lab spacecraft components, including radios, reaction wheels and star trackers.
The missions will last three months.
The first Varda Photon is slated to deliver in the first quarter of 2023, followed by a second later in the year and a third in 2024. Varda also has the option to buy a fourth Photon.
“The Varda team is undertaking ground-breaking work that really opens up new possibilities and markets for in-space manufacturing,” Beck said in a statement.
“We are one step closer to delivering valuable materials to our clients here on Earth,” added Varda CEO Will Bruey.
The announcement follows news that Rocket Lab’s Photon spacecraft has also been tapped for NASA missions to the moon and to Mars.
