Watch the Launch

Additional Media

We Love the Nightlife (Capella Acadia 1)

Circle Image

Overview

Destination: Low Earth Orbit
Mission: Earth Science

Low Earth Orbit Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand
40 - Pacific Ocean

Payload consists of a single SAR Earth-imaging Acadia satellite, a new generation satellite designed, manufactured, and operated by Capella Space. First mission to fly with a reused engine.

Updates

SwGustav • Aug. 24, 2023, 1:03 a.m.

Launch success


SwGustav • Aug. 23, 2023, 11:45 p.m.

Liftoff


LL2 • Aug. 23, 2023, 11:27 p.m.

Livestream has started


Cosmic_Penguin • Aug. 23, 2023, 8:19 a.m.

New NET T-0, 23:45 UTC.


Cosmic_Penguin • Aug. 14, 2023, 11:13 p.m.

New launch date and time.


Electron

Family:
Configuration:

Electron is a two-stage orbital expendable launch vehicle (with an optional third stage) developed by the American aerospace company Rocket Lab. Electron is a small-lift launch vehicle designed to launch small satellites and cubesats to sun-synchronous orbit and low earth orbit. The Electron is the first orbital class rocket to use electric-pump-fed engines, powered by the 9 Rutherford engines on the first stage. It is also used as a suborbital testbed (called HASTE) for hypersonics research.

See Details
Specifications
  • Minimum Stage
    2
  • Max Stage
    3
  • Length
    18.0 m
  • Diameter
    1.2 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    1.2 m
  • Launch Mass
    13.0 T
  • Thrust
    162.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    Electron
  • Family
  • Variant
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Electron
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $6000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    300.0 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity
    225.0 kg

Booster Info


40

Status: Retired


Type: Core
Flight Proven: No
First Flight: August 23, 2023
Last Flight: August 23, 2023
Flights: 1
Landings Attempted: 1
Landings Successful: 1

Landing Information

The Electron booster was successfully recovered after a soft parachute splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

Result: Successful Parachute Landing landing at Pacific Ocean.

Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab

(RL)

CEO: Peter Beck Founded: 2006 Successes: 75 Failures: 4 Pending: 42

Agency Type:

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. The company is also producing a variety of spacecrafts and spacecrafts components.

INFO WIKI

Related News

The Launch Pad

RocketLab Flys Recovered Electron Engine For First Time

Rocket Lab has achieved a significant milestone in the effort to make Electron reusable, for the first time the company has flown an engine that had previously flown before and was recovered from the ocean.

Arstechnica

The re-flight of a Rutherford engine demonstrates rocket reuse is here to stay

"The data is in, perfect performance from the reused engine."

Teslarati

Rocket Lab launches 40th mission, first re-flown Rutherford engine

Rocket Lab’s ‘We Love the Nightlife’ mission lifted off at 11:45 a.m. NZST (23:45 UTC), bringing the Acadia satellite to orbit and...

SpaceNews

Rocket Lab reuses engine on Electron launch

Rocket Lab successfully reflew an engine on an Electron launch Aug. 23 as the company moves a step closer to reusing the entire rocket booster.

Teslarati

Rocket Lab’s Electron faces rare last second abort

Rocket Lab’s 40th mission will have to wait a bit longer, as the Electron rocket ignited its 9 Rutherford engines and immediately...

Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B


Soyuz 2.1a
Success
21 hours, 10 minutes ago
Obzor-R No.1
43/4 (43R) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

Note: Assignment of payloads to this launch is uncertain. The Russian Obzor-R satellite is a planned X-band radar earth observation satellite desi…


LVM-3 (GSLV Mk III)
Success
2 days, 7 hours ago
BlueBird Block 2 #1
Satish Dhawan Space Centre Second Launch Pad - Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India

AST SpaceMobile’s Block 2 BlueBird satellites are designed to deliver up to 10 times the bandwidth capacity of the BlueBird Block 1 satellites, requi…


Long March 12A
Success
3 days, 9 hours ago
Demo Flight
Long March 12A Pad - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

First test launch of CASC/SAST’s Long March 12A rocket, with a dummy payload. The rocket’s 1st stage attempted to land on a landing pad about 300 km …


HANBIT-Nano
Failure
3 days, 10 hours ago
Spaceward
HANBIT Pad - Alcântara Space Center, Federative Republic of Brazil

Maiden orbital launch attempt for the South Korean start-up Innospace and its HANBIT-Nano small launch vehicle. Onboard this flight are five small sa…


H3-22
Failure
4 days, 9 hours ago
Michibiki 5 (QZS-5)
Yoshinobu Launch Complex LP-2 - Tanegashima Space Center, Japan

QZSS (Quasi Zenith Satellite System) is a Japanese satellite navigation system operating from inclined, elliptical geosynchronous orbits to achieve o…


Electron
Success
5 days, 4 hours ago
The Wisdom God Guides (iQPS Launch 6)
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B - Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

Synthetic aperture radar Earth observation satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company iQPS.


New Shepard
Success
5 days, 21 hours ago
NS-37
West Texas Suborbital Launch Site/ Corn Ranch - Corn Ranch, Van Horn, TX, USA

NS-37 is the 16th crewed flight for the New Shepard program and the 37th in the New Shepard program's history.


Long March 5
Success
5 days, 22 hours ago
TJSW-23
101 - Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China

Chinese classified satellite claimed to be for communication technology test purposes. Actual mission not known.


Electron
Success
1 week, 1 day ago
Don't Be Such A Square (STP-S30)
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2 (Launch Area 0 C) - Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA

STP-S30 is a complex mission that will deliver research experiments and technology demonstrations to orbit for the DoD and contribute to future space…


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 1 day ago
Starlink Group 15-13
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 27 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.