Rocket Lab (Nasdaq: RKLB) is preparing to launch its second Electron rocket of the month and its 60th to date. The flight carries with it the first of BlackSky’s Gen-3 Earth imaging and analytics gathering satellites.
Liftoff of the mission, dubbed ‘Fasten Your Space Belts,’ from Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand is set for 12:15 p.m. NZDT on Feb. 19 (6:15 p.m. EST, 2315 UCT on Feb. 18). The company will livestream the launch beginning about 20 minutes prior to liftoff on its YouTube channel.
“Electron is a trusted and reliable constellation builder for companies like BlackSky, allowing them to be in control of how, when, and where to deploy their constellation,” said Sir Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s founder and CEO, in a statement. “BlackSky is one of our earliest and longest-standing commercial satellite customers, and it’s great to be heading back to the pad with them once again to continue to advance and expand their constellation.”
With this mission, Rocket Lab will bring the total number of satellites launched to 210. To support the Gen-3 satellite, it will use its Motorized Lightband separation system.
Rocket Lab will not attempt to recover its Electron booster with this mission.
Expanding the constellation
BlackSky (NYSE: BKSY), one of Rocket Lab’s oldest customers, is sending its first Gen-3 satellite into low Earth orbit less than two years after completing its Gen-2 constellation of satellites. This latest mission will be the ninth time Rocket Lab launches a payload for BlackSky going back to 2019.
To date, there have been more than than a dozen launches supporting the Gen-2 satellites between Rocket Lab, SpaceX and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)
- BlackSky Pathfinder 1 (Sep. 2016) – PSLV-G
- Global-1 (Nov. 2018) – PSLV-CA
- SSO-A rideshare (Dec. 2018) – Global-2
- ‘Make it Rain’ (Jun. 2019) – Global-3
- ‘Look Ma, No Hands’ (Aug. 2019) – Global-4
- Starlink 8-6 rideshare (Aug. 2020) – Global-7 & Global-8
- ‘They Go Up So Fast’ (Mar. 2021) – Global-9 / BlackSky-7
- ‘Running Out of Toes’ (May 2021) – Global-10 & Global-11 (launch mishap)
- ‘Love at First Insight’ (Nov. 2021) – Global-14 & Global-15
- Starlink 4-3 rideshare (Dec. 2021) – Global-12 & Global-13
- ‘A Data with Destiny’ (Dec. 2021) – Global-16 & Global-17
- ‘Without Mission a Beat’ (Apr. 2022) – Global 18 & Global-20
- ‘The Beat Goes On’ (Apr. 2023) – Global 19 & Global 5
In its 2024 Q3 earnings report, BlackSky said it acquired a partner stake in Seattle-based satellite manufacturing company LeoStella in a joint venture with Tales Alenia Space U.S. Investment LLC. That deal was completed in Nov. 2024, according to a 10-Q filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“We expect that this acquisition will allow [BlackSky] to improve its control over the Gen-3 supply chain and production operations,” BlackSky wrote.
In its latest earnings report, BlackSky CEO Brian O’Toole said the company raised more than $45 million in order to “fully fund our baseline Gen-3 constellation plan.” He added that following the first launch of a Gen-3 satellite, BlackSky expects to begin “a regular deployment cadence of Gen-3 satellites in 2025.”
Spaceflight Now reached out to BlackSky for clarification on what it anticipates that cadence to be, but has not yet heard back.
The Gen-3 satellite is a 35 cm high-resolution intelligence gathering satellite. A little more than 55 minutes after liftoff, it will deploy into a 470 km circular Earth orbit at a 59 degree inclination.
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