The rocket launched from the NASA-operated Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. Photo: Trevor Mahlmann via Rocket Lab
By Joey Roulette
Rocket Lab launched its first mission from American soil on Tuesday, kicking off an expansion of the company's launch business that adds to a surge in private rocket activity at US space ports.
The Long Beach, California-based company's workhorse Electron rocket, an expendable launcher standing 12 meters tall, lifted off at 6pm EST from its new launch pad at the NASA-operated Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia.
The mission marked Rocket Lab's first outside its flagship launchsite on the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand, where the company has carried out all 32 previous Electron missions since the rocket's debut in 2017.
Rocket Lab secured an agreement to use the Launch Complex 2 site in Virginia in 2018.
Virginia is indeed for launch lovers
— Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) January 24, 2023
@TheFavoritist
@TrevorMahlmann pic.twitter.com/OasKIY9xmW
Tuesday's mission had been delayed several times, initially by nearly a year over a lengthy certification review of Electron's automated flight termination system, then a few more weeks due to bad weather in Virginia.
The mission was otherwise routine for Rocket Lab, sending three satellites toward orbit for radio-frequency analytics firm Hawkeye 360.
Rocket Lab's inaugural Virginia-based mission comes as US regulators adapt to a surge in private rocket launches, driven primarily by Elon Musk's SpaceX.
The uptick is expected to grow as a handful of US launch startups plan to loft their rockets into space for the first time in 2023.
- Reuters
