Electron

Rocket Lab intends to attempt recovery of an Electron first stage on Flight 17, which is expected to take place later 2020.

Peter Beck has studied a concept for a privately funded smallsat mission to Venus that could launch in 2023 using Electron.

Rocket Lab is pursuing the possibility of using Electron for interplanetary missions based on the vehicle’s improved performance.

Rocket Lab completed drop tests of a dummy Electron first stage at its New Zealand launch site that demonstrated the parachute would deploy and slow the booster after reentry.

Rocket Lab plans to resume Electron launches 2020-08 and expects to fly within 10 to 12 days of 2020-08-03.

Rocket Lab now states Electron can place 200 kg into a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit and 300 kg into lower orbits.

Rocket Lab previously promoted Electron payload capacities of 150 kg to a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit and 225 kg to lower orbits.

On 2020-07-31, Rocket Lab completed an investigation that concluded an anomalous electrical connection caused the failure of an Electron rocket launch nearly four weeks earlier.

An internal Rocket Lab accident investigation board, working with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, determined that a faulty electrical connection led to the premature shutdown of the Electron’s second-stage engine several minutes after liftoff from New Zealand on 2020-07-04 (U.S. time).

The previous Electron launch before the July mission took place 2020-06-13 and carried three National Reconnaissance Office satellites and smallsats for American and Australian universities.

A Rocket Lab Electron rocket failed to reach orbit during a 2020-07-04 launch after a problem during the rocket’s second-stage burn.

Rocket Lab carried out a VCLS launch when a Rocket Lab Electron rocket successfully launched 10 cubesats for NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative and three additional payloads for other customers on a December 2018 launch.

Rocket Lab’s next Electron launch scheduled for 2020-07-05 was planned to carry commercial satellites for Canon, Planet, and In-Space Missions.

Faraday-1 is a cubesat developed by British company In-Space Missions that will fly as the seventh satellite on Rocket Lab’s 2020-07-03 Electron launch and is designed to carry a variety of hosted payloads.

The two NRO-contracted Electron launches will take place from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand from pads LC-1A and LC-1B.

The primary payload on Rocket Lab’s 2020-07-03 Electron launch is an imaging satellite developed by Canon.

Rocket Lab announced on 2020-06-18 that it received the National Reconnaissance Office contracts for two Electron missions that were awarded in the late spring of 2021.

The NRO used the RASR contract vehicle to launch three payloads on an Electron rocket on 2020-06-13.