Unfavorable Winds Aloft Delay Virginia is for Launch-Lovers Mission

After 32 successful launches from its New Zealand, Launch Complex 1 facility, Rocket Lab, the publicly traded, American space-launch concern, has staged and scrubbed the first launch of its highly-successful Electron Rocket from U.S. soil.

Electron—in the Rocket Lab context—is a proper noun, not an allusion to the contraption’s workings.

The inaugural U.S. launch was to have been made on 18 December 2022 from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 2 at Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS). Regrettably, unfavorable winds aloft precluded safe spaceflight operations within the 18:00 to 20:00 EST launch-window.

A subsequent liftoff will likely be attempted during the next launch-window, which opens Monday, 19 December at 18:00 EST.

Designed and developed to support rapid call-up Electron missions for U.S. government and commercial customers, Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 2 comprises a 66-ton launch platform and 7.6-ton strongback for the Electron launch vehicle, as well as an Integration and Control Facility (ICF) housing multiple Electron rockets, payload integration clean-rooms, and administrative offices.

After Rocket Lab’s fashion of ascribing whimsical appellations to its Electron launches—e.g., Running Out Of Fingers (tenth Electron launch), Return to Sender (first attempt to retrieve Electron first stage); Running Out Of Toes (twentieth Electron launch)—the inaugural U.S. launch has been dubbed Virginia Is For Launch Lovers.

The 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.

Having safely delivered 152 satellites to Low Earth Orbit over 32 successful launches, Rocket Lab’s Electron is the world’s most frequently launched small orbital rocket. The combined capacity of Launch Complexes 1 and 2 shall, henceforth, render Rocket Labs capable of availing itself of up to 130 Electron launch opportunities every year.

FMI: www.rocketlabusa.com