Rocket Lab has today confirmed it will open a 14-day launch
window this month to conduct the company’s first fully
commercial launch. The mission, named ‘It’s Business Time’,
includes manifested payloads for Spire Global and GeoOptics
Inc., built by Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems.
The 14-day ‘It’s Business Time’ launch window will open on
Friday April 20, 2018 NZT. During this time a four-hour launch
window will open daily from 12:30 p.m. NZT (00:30 UTC). ‘It’s
Business Time’ will launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in
New Zealand. Licensed to launch every 72 hours, Rocket Lab
Launch Complex 1 is the world’s only private orbital launch
facility.
Rocket Lab is the only private, dedicated small launch provider
globally that has deployed satellites to orbit. ‘It’s Business
Time’ marks the fastest transition a private launch provider has
made from test program to fully commercial flights. This mission
follows just three months after Rocket Lab’s January 21, 2018
launch “Still Testing”, which successfully deployed an
Earth-imaging satellite for Planet and circularized the orbit of
two weather and AIS ship tracking satellites for Spire Global
using Rocket Lab’s in-house designed and built kick stage.
“‘It’s Business Time’ represents the shift to responsive space.
We always set out to create a vehicle and launch site that could
offer the world’s most frequent launch capability and we’re
achieving that in record time,” said Rocket Lab founder and CEO
Peter Beck.
“Rocket Lab is the only small launch provider that has reached
orbit and delivered on promises to open access to space for
small satellites. We can have payloads on orbit every 72 hours
and our rapidly expanding manifest shows this is frequency is
critical for the small satellite market,” he added.
Rocket Lab can achieve an unprecedented launch frequency thanks
to a vertically integrated vehicle manufacturing process that
enables Rocket Lab to roll an Electron vehicle off the
production line every week. To meet a burgeoning 2018/19 launch
manifest, Rocket Lab has rapidly scaled production of the
Electron launch vehicle across its three-acre headquarters and
production facility in Huntington Beach, California. The company
will produce 100 3D printed Rutherford engines this year to
support a monthly launch cadence by the end of 2018.