At 22:30 UTC on March 22, Rocket Lab launched their second Electron of 2021 from Launch Complex-1 on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. They Go Up So Fast is the nineteenth launch overall of the Electron rocket and broke the 100-satellite milestone.

The Electron rose swiftly from the pad into relatively clear skies, and the onboard camera showed beautiful views of the Earth as the rocket gained altitude. This mission carried six customer satellites into orbit as well as the next iteration of the company’s Photon space tug.

The first customer satellite we’re going to talk about is BlackSky 7, one of the Block 2 satellites in the commercial imaging constellation of the same name, which is planned to have between thirty and sixty satellites when fully operational. They will be able to image a location as frequently as every 30 minutes day or night.

The BlackSky satellites have a ground resolution of about a meter from a 500-kilometer orbit, weigh 56 kilograms, and have sufficient propellant for an orbital life of three years. They are able to produce 1,000 images per day, in either single image or video mode.

This wasn’t the first time a BlackSky satellite had ridden on a Rocket Lab launch vehicle. BlackSky-2 and -3 both went to orbit on Electrons in June and August of 2019, respectively. Other members of the constellation have been sent to orbit on other launch vehicles over the last three years, including an Indian PSLV and several SpaceX Falcon 9’s.

Another interesting satellite on the mission is the Hatchling Veery “Clay” satellite, a 1U CubeSat built by Care Weather Technologies in just three months. Hatchling Veery is the first test of Care Weather’s custom flight computer, batteries, solar panels, drag panels, three-axis reaction wheels, and structures. It is also the first spaceflight of the PPT3-1C integrated propulsion module made by Applied Ion Systems. The goal of the mission is to test all of these components so they did not include their weather sensor.

The mission duration is planned to be six months with an orbital life of 3.5 years. Initially, Hatchling Veery will be freely tumbling and will make contact with the Iridium network. It will perform a number of attitude control tests and periodically communicate data about the health of the satellite systems.

According to Care Weather’s website: Hatchling was developed by Alex Laraway, Patrick Walton, and Harris Rothaermel in a record-breaking three months. Hatchling is dedicated to Clay Reynolds, a good friend of Alex, who passed away in 2020.

Six months after the first Photon mission, “First Light”, Rocket Lab designated a second Photon and dubbed it “Pathstone”. During ascent, it performed its kick stage function. After delivering the customer payloads to their circular orbits, Pathstone continued on its own mission with different flight software. Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck described this process as “sending a magic command”. Pathstone is an opportunity to test subsystems and procedures with Photon before the first flight of Interplanetary Photon, which will carry NASA’s CAPSTONE mission to lunar orbit later this year. CAPSTONE will be launched from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) in Virginia.

More Information

Rocket Lab press release

BlackSky constellation info page (Gunter’s Space Page)

BlackSky press release (pdf)

Hatchling Veery “Clay” info page (Care Weather)

Pathstone info page (Gunter’s Space Page)

Launch video