Tag: Electron
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Launch Roundup: Starship and Ariane 6 launch after scrubs
SpaceX launches Starship’s eighth flight test, Arianespace’s Ariane 6 launches from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, and China sends another Chang Zheng 3B/E to space. Ariane 6 kicks off the week by launching high-resolution reconnaissance satellites for the French Space Agency, followed by Starship’s eighth flight test. Then, Chang Zheng 3B/E takes another…
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Rocket Lab launches BlackSky Gen-3 satellite on 60th Electron flight
Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket stands at Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand, ahead of the launch of BlackSky’s first Gen-3 satellite. Image: Rocket Lab Update 7:16 p.m. EST (0016 UTC): Rocket Lab confirms a successful payload deployment. Rocket Lab (Nasdaq: RKLB) completed its second Electron rocket of the month and its 60th to date.…
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Launch Roundup: Falcon 9 achieves Bahamas booster landing; Electron flies 60th mission
Three Falcon 9 Starlink missions and a Rocket Lab Electron launch from New Zealand made up the launch manifest for this week. The first Starlink flight of the week saw a Falcon booster land within Bahamian waters for the first time, while Electron’s launch marked the 60th flight of the rocket since its first flight…
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Rocket Lab launches first Electron rocket of 2025 from New Zealand
A Rocket Lab Electron rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand to begin the ‘IoT 4 You and Me’ mission for customer, Kinéis. Image: Rocket Lab Rocket Lab launched its first orbital mission of 2025 on Sunday morning local time. The company’s 59th Electron rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 1, Pad…
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Launch Roundup: Soyuz flies; New Shepard simulates lunar gravity
This week’s launch manifest is quite diverse, featuring the launches of four different rockets worldwide. Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket has simulated the Moon’s gravity from just beyond the Kármán line, and Rocket Lab launched Electron for the first time this year from New Zealand. Russia launched Soyuz for the first time in 2025…
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Rocket Lab, Orora Technologies contract for “responsive launch” ahead of main 2025 wildfire season
Thermal imaging sensors developed for OroraTech and Spire Global’s OTC-P1 satellites. Image: Orora Technologies A new batch of eight fire detection satellites are getting ready to launch into low Earth orbit in what Rocket Lab (Nasdaq: RKLB) described as a “responsive launch.” The dedicated flight is expected to launch from New Zealand in “just a…
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Launch Roundup: SpaceX plans for five customer missions; Rocket Lab launch mission for Synspective
The orbital launch manifest for the week of Dec. 16 through Dec. 22 has been one of the busiest yet, with 10 of the 12 planned launches worldwide succeeding. SpaceX planned to launch seven Falcon 9 missions this week, with five customer missions, one rideshare mission, and one Starlink mission. Outside of the U.S., three…
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Launch Roundup: SpaceX launches cargo resupply mission to ISS, Roscosmos and Rocket Lab also launch
This week got off to a flying start when new science experiments and cargo were launched to the International Space Station, and Roscosmos launched ionospheric research satellites. Rocket Lab has also launched its Electron rocket on the company’s quickest turnaround mission to date this week. Following a scrub of Sunday’s Starlink mission just moments before…
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Launch Roundup: Falcon 9 and Electron to extend satellite constellations
This week’s manifest includes the delayed launches of a Falcon 9 with Galileo global positioning satellites and an Electron with a second batch of satellites for Kinéis. SpaceX also launched a batch of 20 Starlink satellites from California as the constellation increases to 6,000 operational satellites. Following last weekend’s return and recovery of the Polaris…
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Launch Roundup: Polaris Dawn, ISS crewed launch headline busy week
This week’s manifest features four Falcon 9 launches, including the highly anticipated Polaris Dawn crewed mission, a mission carrying AST SpaceMobile’s first five cellphone-compatible broadband satellites, and the delayed launch of two more satellites for Europe’s mid-Earth orbit Galileo constellation. Additionally, Roscosmos has launched the Soyuz MS-26 crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS).…