{"id":2290,"date":"2025-12-17T11:28:45","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T11:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/rocket-lab-schedules-launch-for-us-space-forces-stp-s30-mission\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T11:28:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T11:28:45","slug":"rocket-lab-schedules-launch-for-us-space-forces-stp-s30-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/rocket-lab-schedules-launch-for-us-space-forces-stp-s30-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocket Lab Schedules Launch for US Space Force\u2019s STP-S30 Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\" itemprop=\"image\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.satnow.com\/news\/1765950323310_639015471247192984.png\" width=\"712\" height=\"395\" alt=\"Rocket Lab Schedules Launch for US Space Force\u2019s STP-S30 Mission\" class=\"imageload removeImageattr\" data-original=\"https:\/\/cdn.satnow.com\/news\/1765950323310_639015471247192984.png\" style=\"opacity: 0;\"><meta itemprop=\"url\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.satnow.com\/news\/1765950323310_639015471247192984.png\"><meta itemprop=\"width\" content=\"712\"><meta itemprop=\"height\" content=\"395\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rocket Lab Corporation<\/strong>, a global leader in launch services and space systems,announced its next Electron launch&nbsp;will deploy the <strong>STP-S30 mission<\/strong> for the U.S. Space Force\u2019s (USSF) <strong>Space Systems Command (SSC)<\/strong>&nbsp; after accelerating the launch of the mission by several months, demonstrating Rocket Lab\u2019s agility in meeting the Department of War\u2019s (DoW) space access demands.<\/p>\n<p>The launch, named<em>&nbsp;\u2018Don\u2019t Be Such A Square\u2019<\/em>, is scheduled to liftoff from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Virginia, during a launch window that opens on December 18 at 05:00 UTC\/12:00 a.m. Eastern (9:00 p.m. Pacific on December 17).<\/p>\n<div class=\"widget-layout related-content-also-read-box my-3\">\n<h4 class=\"mb-0\">Upcoming Launch Mission Details of Rocket Lab&#8217;s STP-S30<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<p>Led by the DoW\u2019s Space Test Program (STP) and the Rocket Systems Launch Program (RSLP), the STP-S30 mission will deploy the first four DiskSats to space: disk-shaped spacecraft platforms developed by The Aerospace Corporation (Aerospace), managed by the SSC\u2019s System Delta 89 (SYD 89) Capability Development Branch and funded by the <strong>National Aeronautics and Space Administration\u2019s (NASA)&nbsp;<\/strong>Small Spacecraft &amp; Distributed Systems program, based at NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center&nbsp;in California\u2019s Silicon Valley within the agency\u2019s Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, that offer an alternative approach to small satellites. Electron will deliver these DiskSats to a 550km low Earth orbit where Aerospace will test their maneuverability, launch dispenser mechanism, and orbit-changing capabilities using electric propulsion &#8211; key features for flexible, responsive space operations.<\/p>\n<p>Working with RSLP, Rocket Lab was able to accelerate the \u2018Don\u2019t Be Such A Square\u2019 launch to tomorrow from its initial target of April 2026, in what will be a demonstration of Rocket Lab\u2019s industry-leading responsive launch service. The launch is also scheduled to take place less than a month after Rocket Lab\u2019s most recent LC-2 launch, which was the first of two missions Rocket Lab recently deployed within 48 hours from two different hemispheres. <em>\u2018Don\u2019t Be Such A Square\u2019<\/em> will be Electron\u2019s 20th launch of the year and 78th mission overall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rocket Lab Corporation, a global leader in launch services and space systems,announced its next Electron launch&nbsp;will deploy the STP-S30 mission for the U.S. Space Force\u2019s (USSF) Space Systems Command (SSC)&nbsp; after accelerating the launch of the mission by several months, demonstrating Rocket Lab\u2019s agility in meeting the Department of War\u2019s (DoW) space access demands. The [&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":[39,72,25],"class_list":["post-2290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-aerospace","tag-global","tag-launch"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2290"}],"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=2290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}