Rocket Lab delivers seven satellites to orbit with Electron Rocket

Rocket Lab delivers seven satellites to orbit with Electron Rocket
by Brad Bartz
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jul 18, 2023

In a successful endeavor, Rocket Lab, the California-based space firm, deployed seven satellites into orbit from New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula on Tuesday. The mission, named "Baby Come Back," saw liftoff at 1:27 p.m. local time or 9:27 p.m. EDT Monday, following a delay from the past week due to unfavorable weather conditions.

The mission's seven-satellite payload, launched via the Electron rocket, was destined for three separate clients: NASA, Space Flight Laboratory (SFL), and Spire Global. These low-orbit satellites, hovering a few hundred miles above Earth, are designed to enhance our understanding of Earth's atmosphere and aid in refining weather forecasting.

NASA's contribution to the payload is the Starling mission - a four CubeSat endeavor designed to advance technologies for cooperative spacecraft groups, often referred to as swarms. Once the Starling spacecraft are in orbit and spaced about 40 miles apart, they will autonomously fly together while maintaining awareness of each other's relative positions and trajectories. This mission aims to test the technologies' functionality, limitations, and identify further developments required for successful CubeSat swarms.

For its part, the SFL selected Rocket Lab to launch the Telesat's LEO 3 demonstration satellite, which serves a pivotal role in low-latency customer applications testing and supports LEO antenna and modem development efforts following the decommissioning of Telesat's Phase 1 LEO satellite.

Lastly, Spire Global launched two 3U satellites carrying Global Navigation Satellite System Radio Occultation (GNSS-RO) payloads. These satellites aim to replenish Spire's fully deployed constellation of over 100 multipurpose satellites, utilizing radio frequency technology to observe Earth in real time and gather data to enhance the accuracy of weather forecasts.

In another step towards reusable rockets, the Electron's first stage was recovered from the Pacific Ocean after the launch. The stage, equipped with new recovery upgrades including waterproofing systems, parachuted into the water at 9:44 p.m. EDT, and a specialized ship retrieved it. Rocket Lab's previous attempts at recovering rockets from the ocean with helicopters proved unsuccessful.

The "Baby Come Back" mission marks Rocket Lab's seventh Electron launch in 2023, and the 39th Electron launch overall. It's also the company's second recovery mission this year. The company plans to analyze the recovered stage at its production complex, taking its marine recovery system closer to full maturity in preparation for the reflight of a booster.