{"id":17810,"date":"2020-01-31T01:55:38","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T17:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/rocket-lab-launches-secret-payload-from-new-zealand-for-u-s-spy-satellite-agency\/"},"modified":"2020-01-31T01:55:38","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T17:55:38","slug":"rocket-lab-launches-secret-payload-from-new-zealand-for-u-s-spy-satellite-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/rocket-lab-launches-secret-payload-from-new-zealand-for-u-s-spy-satellite-agency\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocket Lab launches secret payload from New Zealand for U.S. spy satellite agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Electron \u201cBirds of a Feather\u201d launch (NROL-151)\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OkajURO7vlw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>After waiting out high winds, Rocket Lab\u2019s low-cost Electron rocket launched a top-secret payload for the National Reconnaissance Office from New Zealand, halfway around the world from the U.S. spy satellite agency\u2019s headquarters.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Liftoff for the \u201cBirds of a Feather\u201d mission took place at 6:56 p.m. PT today (3:56 p.m. local time Friday), nearly three hours after the day\u2019s launch window opened. Rocket Lab\u2019s team faced excessively high ground winds, but the breeze subsided in time for the company\u2019s first liftoff of 2020 and its 11th mission to date. After stage separation, the rocket\u2019s kick stage continued on its way to deploy the NROL-151 payload about an hour after launch.<\/li>\n<li>The nature of the payload isn\u2019t known \u2014 but back in 2018, the NRO\u2019s director at the time, Betty Sapp, said the agency wanted \u201cto explore what the tiny rocket marketplace can provide for us.\u201d Although the launch took place on New Zealand\u2019s Mahia Peninsula, the California-based Rocket Lab is cleared for U.S. governmental and military launches. It has previously sent payloads to orbit for NASA, the U.S. Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, as well as for civilian satellite operators.<\/li>\n<li>Eventually, Rocket Lab aims to try recovering its first-stage boosters for reuse, but this time around, it intended only to collect the data recorded by the booster during its guided re-entry and splashdown into the Pacific Ocean. The privately held company is definitely on its way up: It\u2019s expanding to a second launch pad on Virginia\u2019s Wallops Island, and is building yet another pad in New Zealand.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After waiting out high winds, Rocket Lab\u2019s low-cost Electron rocket launched a top-secret payload for the National Reconnaissance Office from New Zealand, halfway around the world from the U.S. spy satellite agency\u2019s headquarters. Liftoff for the \u201cBirds of a Feather\u201d mission took place at 6:56 p.m. PT today (3:56 p.m. local time Friday), nearly three [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4745,1596,290,544],"class_list":["post-17810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-electron-rocket","tag-new-zealand","tag-nro","tag-rocket-lab"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17810"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17810\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}