Rocket Lab launched its 100th space mission today from New Zealand. The Electron rocket carried a private Japanese Earth-observing satellite into orbit. Founder Peter Beck said, "It's an unprecedented milestone for a commercial small-lift orbital rocket." This historic flight marks a major success for the company since its first launch.
Rocket Lab has launched its 100th space mission today. The milestone liftoff took place from the company's New Zealand site, during a window that opened at 12:30am EST (11:00am IST). An Electron rocket carrying a private Japanese Earth-observing satellite was launched as part of this historic mission, dubbed The Mountain God Rises.
Rocket Lab's journey began in May 2017 with a test flight of the Electron rocket from New Zealand.
The first attempt was unsuccessful, but the company bounced back on its second try in January 2018 by successfully delivering several cubesats to low Earth orbit (LEO).
Since then, Electron has become one of the most reliable rockets globally for carrying small payloads into space for various customers.
No commercially developed rocket has reached the 100th mission mark faster than Electron, not even SpaceX's Falcon 9.
It's an unprecedented milestone for a commercial small-lift orbital rocket, and a threshold rarely crossed in modern spaceflight, said Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck.
He also emphasized their impressive reliability rate across 100 launches so far.
The Mountain God Rises is Rocket Lab's 11th launch for Tokyo-based company iQPS, which is building a constellation of three dozen synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites in LEO. If all goes according to plan, Electron's upper kick stage will deploy a single iQPS spacecraft 575km above Earth.
SAR satellites can see through cloud cover and image our planet at night as well as during the day, offering key advantages over optical wavelength-optimized spacecraft.