We couldn’t be happier to have another successful launch in the books. Despite some early stormy-looking skies on March 22, #RL6, also known as #TheyGoUpSoFast, lifted off from Rocket Lab’s LC-1 launch complex. The mission included the launch of Rocket Lab’s 100th satellite, and also the launch of our customer BlackSky’s latest satellite in the BlackSky constellation. 

The deployment of all payloads went smoothly, and the final satellite to separate from Electron was BlackSky 7. BlackSky made contact with their satellite within an hour of deployment. Now on orbit, BlackSky 7 will begin its mission of taking high resolution Earth images. 

The Spaceflight team is back from New Zealand after this launch campaign, and already hard at work on their next mission. 

“The juxtaposition of working in such a remote location and being surrounded by cutting-edge rocketry is pretty wild,” said  Lisa Middlebrook, Spaceflight Mission Manager. “Overlaying the integration campaign with earthquakes and tsunami warnings as we traveled to what felt like the edge of the Earth to launch our customer’s satellite I hope shows our level of dedication to both the Rocket Lab team and our customers.”

And needless to say, it’s always worth whatever challenges come our way when our customers are celebrating the success of the mission with a healthy, functioning satellite on orbit.