The mission was the latest in a multi-launch contract with Capella Space to deploy a series of its Acadia satellites to low Earth orbit for its Earth-imaging constellation.
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (NASDAQ:RKLB) ("Rocket Lab" or "the Company"), a global leader in launch services and space systems, today successfully launched its 52nd Electron rocket and deployed a single satellite to low Earth orbit for Capella Space (Capella).
The mission, named "A Sky Full of SARs" in a nod to the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) capabilities of Capella's spacecraft, lifted off at 01:18 AM New Zealand Standard Time on August 12th from Launch Complex 1, Rocket Lab's private orbital launch site on New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula. The missiondeployed the next of Capella's third-generation SAR Acadia satellites to a mid-inclination 615km low Earth orbit. In addition to the launch service, Rocket Lab provided a custom extended fairing on Electron to encompass the payload before Capella's satellite was deployed to space from a Rocket Lab-produced separation system.