Edinburgh / Long Beach, California, 8 December 2021. – Rocket Lab announced it has signed a deal with Japanese Earth imaging company Synspective to carry out three Electron launches.
The missions are dedicated to Synspective which means that the StriX satellites will be the only payload, giving the company control over launch schedule.
Last year, Rocket Lab launched ‘The Owl’s Night Begins’ mission, the first spacecraft in Synspective’s planned constellation of over 30 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites. That satellite was designed to image metropolitan centres to support urban development planning, construction and infrastructure monitoring, and disaster response.
During the mission, Rocket Lab’s Kick Stage performed a mid-mission maneuver to shield the satellite from the Sun. The same maneuver will be performed during the new missions as well.
The first two missions are scheduled for lift-off next year, with a third to follow in 2023. Each mission will deploy a single StriX satellite forming part of Synspective’s SAR constellation. The system will be able to detect millimetre-level changes in the Earth’s surface regardless of weather conditions and the time of day.
