Rocket Lab launches classified smallsat for National Reconnaissance Office
Rocket Lab in the early morning hours of March 21, 2024 successfully launched a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, its Electron rocket lifting off from Wallops Island in Virgina.
For this launch Rocket Lab made no attempt to recover its first stage. As of posting the payloads had not yet been deployed.
A Chinese Long March 2D launch was also scheduled to occur just prior to the Rocket Lab launch, but as of posting there was no word on whether that launch had taken place.
The leaders in the 2024 space race:
27 SpaceX
11 China
4 Rocket Lab
3 Russia
American private enterprise presently leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 32 to 20, while SpaceX leads the entire world, including American companies, 27 to 25.
Rocket Lab in the early morning hours of March 21, 2024 successfully launched a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, its Electron rocket lifting off from Wallops Island in Virgina.
For this launch Rocket Lab made no attempt to recover its first stage. As of posting the payloads had not yet been deployed.
A Chinese Long March 2D launch was also scheduled to occur just prior to the Rocket Lab launch, but as of posting there was no word on whether that launch had taken place.
The leaders in the 2024 space race:
27 SpaceX
11 China
4 Rocket Lab
3 Russia
American private enterprise presently leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 32 to 20, while SpaceX leads the entire world, including American companies, 27 to 25.