Rocket Lab successfully launches commercial radar satellite
Capitalism in space: Rocket Lab today successfully used its Electron rocket to place a commercial radar Earth observation satellite into orbit.
This was the company’s 30th successful launch. As of this writing, the satellite itself has not yet deployed.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
41 SpaceX
37 China
11 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
5 ULA
American private enterprise now leads China 57 to 37 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 57 to 56. The 57 successful American launches so for this year ties for third place with 1964 and 1967 for launches in a year. The record number of U.S. launches in a single year was 70, in 1966. That record should almost certainly be topped this year.
SpaceX will once again attempt to launch 54 Starlink satellites later tonight, having cancelled several times this week due to weather.
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Capitalism in space: Rocket Lab today successfully used its Electron rocket to place a commercial radar Earth observation satellite into orbit.
This was the company’s 30th successful launch. As of this writing, the satellite itself has not yet deployed.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
41 SpaceX
37 China
11 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
5 ULA
American private enterprise now leads China 57 to 37 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 57 to 56. The 57 successful American launches so for this year ties for third place with 1964 and 1967 for launches in a year. The record number of U.S. launches in a single year was 70, in 1966. That record should almost certainly be topped this year.
SpaceX will once again attempt to launch 54 Starlink satellites later tonight, having cancelled several times this week due to weather.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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.
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3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. 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.
This is also a record for Rocket Lab. They had never gotten above 6 successful launches in a year.
They now have 7 for 2022, and 10 straight successes. They have at least two more planned for this year, but possibly more, but as I understand it, it depends much on the customers for those missions. Since April, they have one launch a month. I am hoping they can maintain that through the end of the year. Regular launch cadence speaks to growing reliability of the system and the company.
Interestingly, not counting the first test mission, the two failures were with the 2nd stage. The test mission failed due to a software glitch on the ground, that led the RSO to believe something was wrong, and terminating the flight. The Electron 1st stage booster itself has never failed.
And as I pointed out in a different thread a week or two back, this is a private company, flying their private launch system, from a private space port. The US government has been only one of many other customers.
I like that they plan to launch from the US also, but I wish it was from a private port here as well and not NASA turf, but I will take it for now. Maybe in the future.
sippin_bourbon: Had Rocket Lab’s spaceport in the U.S. been privately controlled, or at least not under NASA’s thumb, the company would have likely launched from it two years ago. See:
https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/nasa-expected-to-finally-certify-rocket-labs-virginia-launchpad-by-end-of-year/
and
https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/nasa-finally-makes-available-to-the-aerospace-industry-its-new-flight-termination-software/
Yes, Well aware of that drama.
Progress at the speed of government.
“After the committee announced that they could have a meeting to plan a get together with the intent to agree to discuss the issues at a future date, things really started to move forward. Decision making is hard process in a bureaucracy, and there is always the constant danger of getting ahead of oneself…”