The company's last launch was in early May 2019. Rocket Lab has announced that its next launch will be a rideshare mission for the company Spaceflight, taking multiple satellites into orbit. The launch will take place in early June from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Māhia Peninsula. This will be the company’s seventh ever launch of its Electron rocket, and its third in 2019. The mission has been named “Make it Rain”, for the amount of rainfall in Seattle and New Zealand. “This exciting mission with Spaceflight demonstrates the new level of freedom now offered to small satellite operators thanks to Electron,” Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said in a statement. Seattle-based Spaceflight is known for organizing rideshare missions – where multiple spacecraft launch on the same mission. In December, it successfully launched 64 satellites on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the SSO-A mission. On this mission for Rocket Lab the total number of satellites has not yet been revealed. But the missions will include two Prometheus spacecraft for U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), the ACRUX-1 satellite for the Melbourne Space Program, and the Global-4 satellite for US company BlackSky. The Electron rocket will use its Kick Stage, an added thruster on the upper stage of the rocket, to deliver each of the satellites on board into a specific orbit. This ensures that each spacecraft can be contacted easily – something proved difficult with the SSO-A mission. Make it Rain highlights Rocket Lab’s desire to launch every month. Its last launch came in early May, although prior to that it was late March. Ultimately, the company wants to be launching every two weeks by the end of 2019 from New Zealand and a new launch site being built at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, US. Rocket Lab isn’t the only company to announce a rideshare mission. Because European launch company Arianespare revealed on May 9 that they also planned to launch multiple satellites on a Vega launch later this year, which will include 42 small satellites.
Rocket Lab announced that it will launch a rideshare mission for Spaceflight, taking multiple satellites into orbit from its New Zealand launch site in June 2019. The number of satellites involved has not been announced, but will include two Prometheus craft for the US Special Operations Command, a Global-4 satellite for BlackSky and the Melbourne Space Programme’s ACRUX-1. “Launching rockets is an expensive business, so we are looking to partners who can help us lower our costs,” said Rocket Lab's CEO Peter Beck. ’s seventh using its Electron rocket. At the end of 2018, Spaceflight sent a payload of 64 satellites into orbit on a SpaceX Falcon rocket.