Rocket Lab Announces Launch Window for Next Capella Space Mission
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab” or “the Company”), a leading launch and space systems company, announced it has scheduled its next Electron launch during a window that opens September 19, 2023 NZST/UTC.
The ‘We Will Never Desert You’mission is scheduled to launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula for American space tech company Capella Space (Capella), a leading provider of commercial Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery.
‘We Will Never Desert You’will launch the second of Capella’s third-generation SAR Acadia satellites to low Earth orbit. This will be Rocket Lab’s third launch for Capella in 2023, and second launch in a multi-launch contract of four missions. Capella’s highest quality, high resolution SAR imagery penetrates all weather conditions and captures clear imagery 24/7, day and night, anywhere on Earth, delivered through a fully-automated ordering and delivery platform. Capella’s existing SAR capabilities includes long-dwell imaging and extended duty-cycle – which results in more images collected per orbit than any other SAR systems. Acadia will augment Capella’s existing constellation with increased bandwidth and power, faster downlink speeds, and reduced latency.
As Capella’s sole launch provider in 2023 to build out the company’s Earth-imaging constellation, Rocket Lab’s most recent launch, ‘We Love The Nightlife,’ successfully deployed Capella’s first Acadia satellite to space just weeks ago on August 24, 2023. An earlier mission for Capella this year, ‘Stronger Together,’ successfully delivered two satellites to space for the company from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2 in Wallops, Virginia, in March 2023.
Electron’s precise payload deployment record and ability to meet wide-ranging mission requirements enables operators like Capella to increase their constellation’s orbital diversity while at the same time grow quickly to meet customer demand. Rocket Lab is also supplying its own separation systems for each Capella mission that further maintains the Company’s vertical integration strategy.
Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Peter Beck, said: “As the only commercial U.S. small launch vehicle providing regular and reliable dedicated access to orbit, Electron provides a unique service to satellite operators like Capella. When you’re a dedicated launch customer you can fly where you want and when you want to, and launching these two missions back-to-back for Capella demonstrates the value that brings to commercial constellation operators.”
‘We Will Never Desert You’ launch details:
Launch window: NET September 19, 2023.
Launch location: Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia.
Launch Vehicle: Electron.
Satellite Operator: Capella Space.
Payload: SAR Earth-imaging Acadia satellite.
Orbital Destination: 640km circular Earth orbit.