Rocket Lab USA, Inc. has scheduled two dedicated launches in November for Spaceflight Inc.’s customer, real-time geospatial and global monitoring company, BlackSky (NYSE: BKSY).
A two-week launch window for Rocket Lab’s 22nd Electron launch will open November 11-24, 2021, while the 23rd Electron mission is targeted for lift-off during a two-week launch window that opens November 27. Both missions are scheduled to launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand.
Each mission will deploy two Gen-2 satellites for BlackSky in a rapid expansion of the geospatial and global monitoring company’s LEO constellation. These two dedicated missions are part of a multi-launch agreement signed between Rocket Lab and Spaceflight Inc., for BlackSky earlier this year, and precede a third dedicated mission that will follow to deploy two additional BlackSky Gen-2 satellites. Together, these launches — along with a successfully deployed Gen-2 satellite on Rocket Lab’s “They Go Up So Fast” rideshare mission in March of this year — represent the largest number of satellites BlackSky has committed to a single launch provider to date.
The back-to-back launch of these two dedicated missions supports BlackSky’s aggressive scaling of its high-resolution, Earth-imaging constellation to bolster its delivery of analytics and insights to industries including transportation, infrastructure, land use, defense, supply chain management, and humanitarian aid.
“The speed to space Electron provides our customers is unmatched in the dedicated small launch industry, and we’re thrilled to be delivering a launch service that provides assurance for BlackSky to scale their constellation and services with confidence,” said Rocket Lab CEO, Peter Beck.
