Rocket Lab successfully launches commercial Earth observation satellite
Rocket Lab today successfully launched a commercial Earth observation satellite from the Japanese company Synspective, its Electron rocket lifting off from New Zealand.
This is the fifth launch of a contract of sixteen launches by Rocket Lab for Synspective.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
75 SpaceX
32 China
9 Rocket Lab
8 Russia
American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 89 to 48, while SpaceX by itself still leads the entire world combined, including American companies, 75 to 62.
It is noteworthy that Rocket Lab now has more launches in 2024 than Russia, and is maintaining a pace of more than one launch-per-month. The company had predicted doing 20 launches this year, which seems unlikely at this point, but not completely impossible. It however has now tied its 2022 record for most launches in a year, and is thus almost certainly guaranteed to smash it.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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Rocket Lab today successfully launched a commercial Earth observation satellite from the Japanese company Synspective, its Electron rocket lifting off from New Zealand.
This is the fifth launch of a contract of sixteen launches by Rocket Lab for Synspective.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
75 SpaceX
32 China
9 Rocket Lab
8 Russia
American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 89 to 48, while SpaceX by itself still leads the entire world combined, including American companies, 75 to 62.
It is noteworthy that Rocket Lab now has more launches in 2024 than Russia, and is maintaining a pace of more than one launch-per-month. The company had predicted doing 20 launches this year, which seems unlikely at this point, but not completely impossible. It however has now tied its 2022 record for most launches in a year, and is thus almost certainly guaranteed to smash it.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
This launch also ties their previous Max from a couple years ago, suggesting a breakout year for the.
Looking like there was an anomaly on the first stage (first time, all their previous issues were 2nd stage).
Possible that there was an early MECO, but it was late enough in the flight that 2nd stage was able to compensate, and still deliver to orbit.
Waiting on additional info. Peter Beck has already acknowledged there was a issue that will be examined.
Update, looking less like an early shut down, and more like an issue with the separations system. It did not eject or push apart as clean as normal, and the result is that the booster tumbled. It can be seen on in the video in an unusual attitude compared to previous flights.