Rocket Lab expands launch footprint with first mission from US

• Rocket Lab launched its first mission from American soil on Tuesday.
• The mission on Tuesday had been postponed multiple times.
• workhorse Electron rocket, a 40-foot (12-meter) tall vehicle, lifted off at 6 p.m.

WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab launched its first mission from American soil on Tuesday, launching the company’s launch business and contributing to a rise in private rocket activity at US spaceports.

The workhorse Electron rocket, a 40-foot (12-meter) tall disposable launcher from Long Beach, California, lifted off at 6 p.m. EST from the NASA-operated Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia.

Today we successfully expanded our launch footprint with our first mission from U.S. soil.

Thank you to the teams at @NASA_Wallops, @Virginia_Space, @FAANews and @hawkeye360 for helping to make that happen. We’re just getting started 🚀 pic.twitter.com/sTwNJAIRyL

— Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) January 25, 2023

Rocket Lab’s first voyage outside of its flagship launch location on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula, where the company has carried out all 32 prior Electron missions since the rocket’s debut in 2017.

Rocket Lab has agreed to use the Virginia Launch Complex 2 location in 2018.

The mission on Tuesday had been postponed multiple times, first by nearly a year due to a lengthy certification study of Electron’s automated flight termination system, then by a few weeks due to inclement weather in Virginia.

Rocket Lab’s mission was otherwise normal, delivering three satellites into orbit for radio-frequency analytics startup Hawkeye 360.

At 7:34 p.m., the corporation confirmed that the Hawkeye satellites had been safely put into orbit.

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Rocket Lab’s first trip from Virginia comes as US regulators adjust to a surge in private rocket launches, led mostly by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The increase is projected to continue as a number of US launch firms prepare to launch their rockets into space for the first time in 2023.