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<\/p>\nRocket Lab launched its third Electron rocket launch of the year on Saturday. The seventh flight of Electron, named \u201cMake It Rain,\u201d carried seven satellites for Spaceflight Inc. Daily launch windows from 04:30 to 06:30 UTC began on June 27. However, the launch moved to Saturday (local time) after a 48 hour delay due to the need to conduct additional checks on ground equipment. Saturday\u2019s attempt launched at the opening of the window with no issues.<\/p>\n
The mission name was inspired by Spaceflight Inc.\u2019s headquarters in Seattle, Washington. Make It Rain was Spaceflight\u2019s inaugural launch with Rocket Lab and the first of five such launches planned for this year.<\/p>\n
Spaceflight has already launched two missions aboard ISRO\u2019s PSLV and SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rockets in 2019, and have ten additional missions scheduled for the year.<\/p>\n
Rocket Lab, like other smallsat launch providers, is aiming to solve problems associated with large scale rideshare missions, such as limited control over destination orbits and lengthy delays. Dedicated smallsat launches, or rideshare missions like Make It Rain with only a few payloads, allow Rocket Lab to offer precise orbital insertion for all payloads on their own schedule.<\/p>\n
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BlackSky\u2019s Global-3 satellite is integrated with Rocket Lab\u2019s kick stage \u2013 via Rocket Lab<\/p>\n
The largest of the seven satellites deployed, BlackSky\u2019s Global-3 is a commercial Earth observation and imagery satellite. Global-3 is BlackSky\u2019s first inclined launch, at an inclination of 45 degrees.<\/p>\n
Also on board were two Prometheus cubesats, developed by the Los Alamos National Laboratory for the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) as technology demonstration satellites. A student built technology demonstration satellite from the Melbourne Space Program named ACRUX-1 was also aboard Electron, as were two SpaceBEE communications satellites for Swarm Technologies.<\/p>\n
The seventh payload on the launch was not disclosed. The payloads were deployed into a circular orbit at 450 kilometers in altitude, and had a total mass of 80 kilograms.<\/p>\n
With the exception of Global-3, all of the payloads were processed and integrated at Spaceflight\u2019s facility in Auburn, Washington. In early June, they were shipped to Rocket Lab\u2019s private spaceport: Launch Complex 1, on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
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The Electron rocket arrives at Launch Complex 1 \u2013 via Rocket Lab<\/p>\n
The final stage test for Make It Rain was completed on May 21. The Electron rocket arrived at LC-1 in early June, and rolled out to the launch pad on June 19 in preparation for a Wet Dress Rehearsal. The rehearsal of the launch countdown, including fueling of the Electron rocket, was completed on June 21.<\/p>\n
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The mission countdown began six hours before liftoff when the road to the launch site were closed. Four hours before launch, the Electron rocket was lifted from its horizontal position to vertical on the launch pad and filled with RP-1 rocket fuel. Two hours before launch, Liquid Oxygen was loaded onto both stages of Electron.<\/p>\n
After Electron was fully fueled, the Launch Director conducted a go\/no-go poll of the launch team at T- 18 minutes. Two minutes before liftoff, Electron\u2019s on-board computers took over control of the countdown, beginning the launch autosequence. The nine Rutherford engines on Electron\u2019s first stage ignited two seconds before liftoff.<\/p>\n