Rocket Lab and NASA have made progress to certify autonomous software designed to boost the safety of flight termination activities with the Electron rocket, Via Satellite reported Thursday. The space agency on Dec. 17 unveiled the NASA Autonomous Flight Termination Unit‘s updated software as part of efforts to address issues associated with manual software handling. […] More

Rocket Lab plans to retrieve a rocket booster mid-air using a helicopter during a mission scheduled to take place in the first half of 2022. The company said Tuesday it will deploy a helicopter to attempt to catch a falling booster in support of its goal to market Electron as a reusable small rocket. “A […] More

NASA has selected Rocket Lab to send a miniature satellite into space for the agency’s project to test deployable composite materials and a method to power spacecraft using sunlight. The company said Wednesday it will deploy a 12-unit CubeSat with the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System as part of the Electron launch vehicle’s rideshare mission scheduled […] More

Rocket Lab will begin to produce two spacecraft for a NASA-backed Mars mission that aims to study the composition, structure and other elements of the red planet’s magnetosphere. The company said Monday a pair of Photon spacecraft will orbit Mars as the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers or ESCAPADE mission. The two Photon […] More

Rocket Lab is preparing to launch a 55-pound satellite developed by Advanced Space to help NASA test technologies with the potential to facilitate safe navigation for lunar exploration. The launch service provider said Friday its Electron rocket and Photon spacecraft will fly the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment or CAPSTONE from […] More

Rocket Lab has launched a U.S. Space Force research and development mission that will demonstrate the effect of relatively large deployable sensors on small satellite attitude control. The Monolith satellite reached low-Earth orbit following liftoff from the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand as part of the Electron rocket’s 21st overall mission, the company said Thursday. […] More

Rocket Lab has received a contract to design and build two Photon spacecraft to support a science mission to Mars. The twin spacecraft, dubbed Blue and Gold, are expected to launch in 2024 for the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers mission, which is one of the three missions that NASA selected in 2019 […] More

Rocket Lab plans to launch a mission to retrieve its Electron launch vehicle before it executes a splashdown landing in a move to demonstrate rocket reusability. Rocket Lab said Thursday the upcoming “Running Out of Toes” mission will serve as the 20th launch for Electron and is scheduled to take place in May from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand.

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Rocket Lab has agreed to help BlackSky launch geospatial intelligence satellites to space across multiple missions in 2021. The launch vehicle provider said Thursday its Electron launch vehicle will send eight of BlackSky's 286-pound satellites to low Earth orbit across four flight missions.

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Rocket Lab on Monday launched into orbit six spacecraft for its government and commercial clients as part of the 19th mission of its Electron rocket. The Electron rocket for the They Go Up So Fast mission lifted off from a launch complex in New Zealand to field the six customer payloads, including a technology demonstrator for the U.S. Army's Space and Missile Defense Command and a CubeSat for Care Weather Technologies.

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General Atomics' electromagnetic systems business has secured a contract of an undisclosed sum from the U.S. Space Force through the Hosted Payload Solutions delivery order to launch a data collection payload aboard the Orbital Test Bed satellite.

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Rocket Lab has commenced recovery attempts for the first stage of its Electron rocket after the vehicle launched small satellites to orbit and conducted a parachute landing in the Pacific Ocean, CNET reported Thursday.

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