Electron Family rocket variant.
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The 2020-06-11 Electron launch includes the ANDESITE cubesat built by students at Boston University whose launch was arranged by NASA.
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 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.
The NRO used the RASR contract vehicle to launch three payloads on an Electron rocket on 2020-06-13.
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.
Rocket Lab plans to resume Electron launches 2020-08 and expects to fly within 10 to 12 days of 2020-08-03.
The National Reconnaissance Office awarded Rocket Lab a contract on 2020-06-18 for back-to-back launches of its Electron rocket from New Zealand in 2021.
Increased battery efficiency allowed Rocket Lab to reduce the mass of batteries carried on Electron and increased Electron’s payload capacity to sun-synchronous orbits from 150 to 200 kg.
Electron deployed the Sequoia radar imaging satellite about an hour after liftoff into a 500-kilometer orbit at a 45-degree inclination.
First Light was launched as the kick stage of an Electron mission that placed Capella Space’s Sequoia radar imaging satellite into orbit on 2020-08-30.
Rocket Lab chief executive Peter Beck discussed a privately funded small spacecraft mission to Venus planned for 2023 that would launch on Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket and use a version of the Photon satellite bus.
Eta Space received a $27,000,000 award to fly LOXSAT 1, a small satellite to test liquid oxygen storage technologies, and is working with Rocket Lab to use the Photon satellite bus and launch LOXSAT 1 on an Electron rocket.
Rocket Lab’s 2021 Electron manifest includes planned first launches from a second pad at New Zealand’s Launch Complex 1 and from Launch Complex 2 at Wallops Island, Virginia.
Rocket Lab scheduled an Electron mission called "Another One Leaves the Crust" to launch no earlier than 2021-01-16 from its New Zealand launch site.
Rocket Lab successfully launched its 18th Electron mission, 'Another One Leaves The Crust,' on 2021-01-20 at 07:26 UTC.
Rocket Lab’s 2021-01-20 Electron launch placed a payload built by OHB Group into a circular orbit at an altitude of 1,200 km.
Rocket Lab is developing a smallsat bus called Photon that is designed to be launched with the Electron rocket.
In 2021, Rocket Lab will use Electron and Photon to launch a satellite to lunar orbit for NASA as a precursor for the Gateway lunar-orbiting outpost that is part of NASA’s Artemis program.
Rocket Lab’s Electron small launch vehicle has launched 18 times since 2017.