Rocket Lab<\/b> has signed a deal with Japanese satellite company Synspective<\/b> to launch its first satellite, the companies announced Tuesday. Rocket plans to launch Synspective\u2019s StriX-\u03b1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite on an Electron launch vehicle as a dedicated mission from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. Synspective said that the launch is scheduled for 2020, but may be delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. <\/p>\n
The satellite will be the first in Synspective\u2019s planned StriX constellation of around 25 SAR satellites designed to provide geospatial solutions. The company plans to launch six satellites by 2022. SAR can capture images that optical satellites cannot, specifically in all weather conditions and at night. Synspective named its satellite Strix because it is the scientific name for the owl, a bird known for its ability to see clearly at night. <\/p>\n
Synspective plans to provide companies, governments, and research organizations with data that can be used for urban development planning, construction and infrastructure monitoring, and disaster response. As the sole payload on the Electron launch vehicle, Synspective will be able to select the exact orbit, launch site, and launch timing that best suits the company\u2019s needs. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very pleased to work with Rocket Lab, a pioneer in rocket ventures. We are also grateful for their flexibility in accepting our requests on the satellite\u2019s orbit and launch period,\u201d Synspective Founder and CEO Motoyuki Arai said. \u201cThis year, we will launch our first satellite as well as our SAR data solutions. With this launch, we are taking a very important step towards establishing Synspective\u2019s one stop service.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rocket Lab has signed a deal with Japanese satellite company Synspective to launch its first satellite, the companies announced Tuesday. Rocket plans to launch Synspective\u2019s StriX-\u03b1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite on an Electron launch vehicle as a dedicated mission from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. Synspective said that the launch is scheduled for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59946,"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":[],"class_list":["post-59945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59945"}],"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=59945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}