Mission At-A-Glance:

• Customers: BlackSky, United States Special Operations Command, Swarm Technologies, Melbourne Space Program.
• Launch vehicle: Rocket Lab Electron
• Location of launch: Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Māhia Peninsula
• Orbit: 450km x 450km orbit, 45 deg inclination
• Total spacecraft: 7

This mission, also called “Make It Rain” by Rocket Lab as a nod to the weather in both Seattle and New Zealand, represented Spaceflight’s first of several launches scheduled with Rocket Lab in 2019.

Spaceflight took seven customer spacecraft on this mission, including a commercial Earth-observing satellite for BlackSky, two cubeSats for U.S. Special Operations Command, a couple SpaceBEEs for Swarm Technologies, and a student-built cubesat from the Melbourne Space Program.

Spaceflight managed the procurement, integration, and mission management services for all the customers manifested on the Electron. The cubesats were processed and integrated in Spaceflight’s Auburn, Wash.-based facility while BlackSky shipped its microsat directly to the Rocket Lab facility in New Zealand for its final integration by the Spaceflight team.