Perfect end to record year of missions for Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab's final mission of 2024 completed a perfect and record year for the space company – 16 launches in all. Photo / Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab completed a 100% launch success rate for 2024 when its 58th mission since 2018 flew into space from the Onenui Station base at Mahia in the early hours of Saturday.

The space company’s 16th launch of the year deployed a satellite for Japanse Earth-observation constellation operator Synspective.

Titled Owl The Way Up, Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle lifted off from Launch Complex 1 in Mahia at 3.17am.

A Business Wire news release said the mission was the sixth in a total of 16 launches booked on Electron for Synspective – an Earth-observation company operating a constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites designed to deliver imagery that can detect millimetre-level changes to Earth’s surface from space.

Rocket Lab first launched for Synspective in December 2020, and has been the sole launch provider for Synspective’s constellation to date.

“Mission success once again for Synspective, capping off our busiest launch year to date,” Rocket Lab founder and chief executive Sir Peter Beck said.

“We look forward to continuing to increase our launch cadence in the new year as we strengthen Electron’s position as the leading small rocket globally, and also enter the medium launch market with Neutron’s debut.

“In 2024, we launched missions for Nasa, the NRO [National Reconnaissance Office], deployed multiple missions for commercial constellation operators like Synspective, launched suborbital Haste [hypersonic accelerator suborbital test Electron] missions advancing hypersonic flight test capability, and to top it all off, we achieved a world first by launching two missions from two different hemispheres in less than 24 hours.

“Thank you and congratulations to the Rocket Lab team, our customers and our mission partners for another stellar year.”

Rocket Lab launched 16 missions in 2024, besting the company’s previous annual launch record of 10 missions achieved in 2023.

It was its fourth launch in four weeks and maintained a record of 100% mission success for all launches in 2024.

Owl The Way was Rocket Lab’s final scheduled launch for 2024. The next Electron launch is scheduled for the first quarter of 2025.

The Business Wire release said Synspective’s small SAR satellites (StriX) “are equipped with a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensor, which can observe the Earth’s surface in any weather condition day or night”.

Examples of its uses included detecting anomalies in road, rail, energy and other infrastructure; monitoring crop growth conditions and analysing soil and vegetation health; detecting illegal logging and fishing in the most remote parts of the world; providing rapid damage assessment after flooding, landslides and volcanic eruptions, and risk assessment for land subsidence; enabling the persistent monitoring of maritime traffic, border activities and other potential security threats; and analysing tree cover to calculate carbon dioxide absorption and carbon credits.

Rocket Lab’s latest launch can be viewed at www.youtube.com/live/-7VZB4pHJrQ