{"id":17963,"date":"2019-08-20T00:43:35","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T16:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/rocket-lab-launches-four-satellites-for-blacksky-unseenlabs-and-u-s-air-force\/"},"modified":"2019-08-20T00:43:35","modified_gmt":"2019-08-19T16:43:35","slug":"rocket-lab-launches-four-satellites-for-blacksky-unseenlabs-and-u-s-air-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/rocket-lab-launches-four-satellites-for-blacksky-unseenlabs-and-u-s-air-force\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocket Lab launches four satellites for BlackSky, UnseenLabs and U.S. Air Force"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_516302\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-516302\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-516302\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/190819-rocketlab2-630x421.jpg\" alt=\"Rocket Lab Electron launch\" width=\"630\" height=\"421\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/190819-rocketlab2-630x421.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/190819-rocketlab2-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/190819-rocketlab2-1260x841.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/190819-rocketlab2.jpg 1484w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-516302\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rocket Lab\u2019s Electron rocket lifts off from its launch pad in New Zealand. (Rocket Lab via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Rocket Lab sent a foursome of satellites into orbit today for a threesome of customers, including the Seattle-based BlackSky Earth-watching venture.<\/p>\n<p>BlackSky\u2019s sibling subsidiary, Spaceflight, handled the prelaunch logistics for the Global-4 satellite and for a pair of experimental U.S. Air Force satellites. The fourth spacecraft in the set is the first satellite for what\u2019s destined to become a maritime surveillance constellation fielded by a French venture called UnseenLabs.<\/p>\n<p>Rocket Lab\u2019s Electron rocket rose from the company\u2019s launch pad on New Zealand\u2019s Mahia Peninsula at 12:12 a.m. local time Aug. 20 (5:12 a.m. PT Aug. 19). It successfully went through second-stage separation and fired up its kick stage to deploy the satellites into a 335-mile-high, medium-inclination orbit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s now eight Electron launches to date and a total of 39 satellites delivered to orbit,\u201d Rocket Lab said in a tweet.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Electron launches four satellites\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OUWZO8gha74?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>Today\u2019s mission was nicknamed \u201cLook Ma, No Hands\u201d to reflect how the rocket looks when its strongback support structure is retracted on the launch pad. It was originally set for last week, but had to be delayed due to worries about winds.<\/p>\n<p>Spaceflight \u2013 which, like BlackSky, is a subsidiary of Seattle\u2019s Spaceflight Industries \u2013 hailed the successful mission. \u201cAll payloads have been deployed! What a way to kick off a week,\u201d the company tweeted.<\/p>\n<p>As its name suggests, Global-4 is the fourth satellite in BlackSky\u2019s Earth-observation constellation. Global-3 went into orbit just a couple of months ago during a previous Rocket Lab mission, and at least four more satellites are expected to join the set later this year.<\/p>\n<p>BlackSky\u2019s satellites are built at a factory south of Seattle by LeoStella, a joint venture involving Spaceflight Industries and Europe\u2019s Thales Alenia Space. They\u2019re designed to provide rapid-revisit satellite imagery for monitoring phenomena ranging from crop health to the damage done by natural disasters.<\/p>\n<p>The two satellites launched for the U.S. Air Force Space Command will test new technologies including propulsion, power, communications and drag capabilities for future spacecraft.<\/p>\n<p>UnseenLabs\u2019 constellation of nanosatellites will monitor radio transmissions to keep track of ships at sea and watch out for activities such as piracy or illegal fishing.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s launch featured the first use of an advanced data recorder called Brutus, which Rocket Lab hopes will provide the telemetry it needs to develop a next-generation Electron rocket with a reusable first-stage booster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rocket Lab\u2019s Electron rocket lifts off from its launch pad in New Zealand. (Rocket Lab via YouTube) Rocket Lab sent a foursome of satellites into orbit today for a threesome of customers, including the Seattle-based BlackSky Earth-watching venture. BlackSky\u2019s sibling subsidiary, Spaceflight, handled the prelaunch logistics for the Global-4 satellite and for a pair of [&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":[2128,4745,544,20,442,2340],"class_list":["post-17963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blacksky-global","tag-electron-rocket","tag-rocket-lab","tag-satellite","tag-satellites","tag-spaceflight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17963"}],"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=17963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17963\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}