Rocket Lab Launches "The Owl's Night Continues"

Electron Launches "The Owl's Night Continues" | Credit: Rocket Lab

On Monday, February 28 at 3:35 pm ET (20:35 UTC), Rocket Lab launched "The Owl's Night Continues" with the Strix Beta satellite built by Synspective atop an Electron rocket from Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1B (LC-1B) in the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand. This was the debut of LC-1B, Rocket Lab's 3rd launch pad. All previous missions happened from LC-1A. Rocket Lab also has LC-2 at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, though no Electron rocket has launched there yet. A second pad in New Zealand allows Rocket Lab to process two launch vehicles at one time, making them capable of launching more often. Though the rocket has a red stripe, Rocket Lab did not attempt to recover the first stage for this mission. Strix Beta is a Japanese synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite built by Synspective as a prototype for the upcoming 25-satellite constellation. It is an upgraded version of the Strix Alpha satellite, previously launched by Rocket Lab in December 2020. This was the 24th Rocket Lab mission, 24th Electron launch, and 21st orbital launch attempt of 2022.