Monday, December 17, 2018

Rocket Lab Delivers 13 Satellites To Space For NASA

Huntington Beach-based Rocket Lab, one of Southern California's crop of space related startups, delivered another payload to space on Sunday, sending a number of small "Cubesats" to space for NASA. According to Rocket Lab, the launch is its third orbital launch for 2018, and brings its total number of satellites launched into space to 24 during the year. Rocket Lab's Electron rocket launched at 6:33 UTC on Sunday from the company's launchpad in New Zealand, and delivered thirteen satellites into space for NASA. Rocket Lab, unlike better known SpaceX, is exclusively focusing on launching those Cubesats and small satellites into space; the company said it is looking to make it easier to launch Cubesats into space. Those small satellites have mostly had to rely on ridesharing--with the exception of the recent small-satellite-only launch on SpaceX---to make their way to space as secondary missions on larger rockets, due to the cost of those large rocket launches. Rocket Lab has not said how much its missions into space ultimately will cost to Cubesat operators.