Rocket Lab Ltd
Electron
Rocket Lab is an American aerospace manufacturer with a wholly owned New Zealand subsidiary. The company develops lightweight, cost-effective commercial rocket launch services. The Electron Program was founded on the premise that small payloads such as CubeSats require dedicated small launch vehicles and flexibility not currently offered by traditional rocket systems. Its rocket, the Electron, is a light-weight rocket and is now operating commercially. Electron currently launches from only Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand however they are currently looking into developing a facility in the US.
INFO WIKILaunch Vehicle
Electron
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Family: Electron
Electron is a two-stage orbital expendable launch vehicle (with an optional third stage) developed by the American aerospace company Rocket Lab. It is a relatively small rocket and used to launch small satellites and cubesats to sun-synchronous orbit. It is the first orbital class rocket to use electric-pump-fed engines, its Rutherford engines. It is a very cheap rocket to launch with, costing only 6 million per launch.
ExploreEarth Science
Encapsulated in Electron's fairing will be a single spacecraft for Astro Digital, a California-based satellite manufacturer and operator. The Landmapper-BC remote sensing satellite features a broad coverage multispectral imaging system with a resolution of 22 meters per pixel. Eventually, Astro Digital plans to extend the Landmapper-BC constellation to capture daily, multispectral imagery of the world’s arable land. The mission is named 'As The Crow Flies' in a nod to Astro Digital's Corvus Platform, which provides flexible and cost-effective solutions across a wide range of applications and mission profiles on bus variants ranging from 6U and 16U CubeSats to ESPA Class. Corvus is also a widely-distributed genus of birds which includes crows.
Launch Infographic
