Making Spacetime

Rocket Lab, the publicly traded American space-launch concern and maker of the highly-successful Electron Rocket, announced on 19 December 2022 that the launch window for its inaugural Electron mission from U.S. soil has been rescheduled to January 2023.

The launch window’s advancement from December 2022 to early 2023 was necessitated by a pernicious confluence of unfavorable winds aloft and red tape—the miasmic, suffocating variety after which the U.S. federal government pines after the fashion of a glutton pining for his lunch. Specifically, NASA failed to complete essential regulatory launch documentation in a timely manner. NASA’s delinquency in conjunction with the FAA’s famed intransigence afforded Rocket Lab only two days of the originally scheduled 14-day launch window. Regrettably, both days proved meteorologically inconducive to spaceflight.

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) within NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility is now closed for launch activity for the remainder of December on account of holiday airspace restrictions. As Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 2 lies within the Wallops Flight Facility …

The amended launch window will see the mission and its related revenue ascribed to Rocket Lab’s first-quarter 2023 fiscals as opposed to its fourth-quarter 2022 earnings, as was anticipated at the time Rocket Lab disclosed its fourth-quarter 2022 financial data. As a result, Rocket Lab is updating its expected fourth-quarter 2022 revenue outlook from the previously provided range of $51-million to $54-million to $46-million to $47-million.

The once and future Virginia Is For Launch Lovers mission is the first of three for U.S. geospatial analytics provider HawkEye 360, and will see the deployment of three satellites—the first of 15 Rocket Lab will deliver to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) on the company’s behalf between 2022 and 2024. By expanding its satellite constellation of radio frequency monitoring satellites, Herndon, Virginia-based HawkEye 360 seeks to better deliver precise geolocation of terrestrial radio frequency emissions.

That the Virginia Is For Launch Lovers mission occasions the Electron Rocket’s first launch from U.S. soil belies, perhaps, Rocket Lab’s track record of 32 successful Electron missions from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. The antipodal missions delivered 152 satellites safely to orbit for customers the likes of NASA, the National Reconnaissance Office, DARPA, the U.S. Space Force, and an impressive roster of commercial constellation operators.

By dint of its robustness, reliability and relatively low cost, Electron has established itself as the world’s most frequently launched small orbital rocket. The added capacity of Launch Complex 2 affords Rocket Lab and its clients more than 130 yearly Electron launch opportunities.

FMI:www.rocketlabusa.com