Rocket Lab Carried Out Two Satellite Launches for BlackSpire

30th Dec 2021
Rocket Lab Carried Out Two Satellite Launches for BlackSpire

On 8th December, Rocket Lab carried out successful satellite launches for BlackSpire. The mission, called A Data with Destiny, carried two Earth observation satellites for BlackSpire’s constellation on board an Electron rocket. This was the sixth launch this year and the 23rd one for Rocket Lab’s most flown carrier so far. 

Latest Rocket Lab Mission Details

Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket took off from the company’s New Zealand launch site at 7:02 p.m. EST. This time, Electron carried two 11th and 12th satellites for BlackSpire’s constellation of high-resolution imagers. BlackSpire’s analytics platform offers insight on transportation, logistics, and land supply for governments and private companies. About an hour after lift off, both satellites reached their calculated destination of about 430 km above the Earth’s surface. 

Previous Satellite Launches for BlackSpire 

Rocket Lab’s A Data with Destiny mission is not the only example of satellite launches for BlackSpire. Previous Electron mission took place on 17th November and, just like A Data with Destiny, successfully deployed two of BlackSpire satellites into the required orbit. Rocket Lab recovered Electron’s first stage for further reuse during that flight. This was the first time the company tested the reusable booster retrieval by catching it from the air with parachutes. The successful completion of this milestone hints that further Rocket Lab launches could be done with reusable boosters. This time, however, the company does not plan to retrieve the rocket’s first stage. 

So far, Rocket Lab has carried out three missions for BlackSpire, and only one ended in failure and payload loss. On 15th May, Electron suffered an anomaly in the upper stage ignition system, after which both the spacecraft and the payload were lost. However, Rocket Lab soon addressed the issue, and we can now hope for more successful satellite launches from the leading provider. 

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