Warp-speed ahead: Rocket Lab's fastest turnaround yet at Mahia, three weeks between launches

The electron launch vehicle. Photo / Supplied

Rocket Lab has announced its next launch will be just three weeks after its most recent mission.

The mission, "Pics Or It Didn't Happen," is scheduled to launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 Pad A on Māhia Peninsula no earlier than July 3.

It demonstrates the site's rapid turnaround capability, with the last one on June 13.

Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck said it had a unique capability to provide dedicated and responsive space access to small satellite customers.

"Rocket Lab has eliminated the small satellite waiting room for orbit," Beck said.

"We've focused heavily on shoring up our rapid launch capability in recent years and we're proud to be putting that into practice for the small sat community with launches just days apart.

"We're excited to continue expanding our responsive space capability with our third launch pad coming online before the end of the year, as well as the continued growth of our Photon satellite program that enables our small sat operators to do more, spend less, and get to orbit faster."

"Pics Or It Didn't Happen" will deploy seven small satellites to a 500km circular low Earth orbit for a range of customers including Spaceflight Inc's customer Canon Electronics, as well as Planet and In-Space Missions.

The next five spacecrafts manifested for this mission are the latest generation of SuperDove satellites manufactured by Planet, operator of the world's largest constellation of Earth-observation satellites.

Planet's satellites are capable of imaging the Earth's entire landmass on a near-daily basis.

This unprecedented dataset helps researchers, students, businesses and governments discover patterns, detect early signals of change, and make timely, informed decisions.

The final spacecraft aboard Electron for this mission has been supplied by British small mission prime, In-Space Missions.

With a new Electron launch vehicle built every 18 days, Rocket Lab remains on target to deliver monthly launches for the remainder of this and into next.

This includes the company's first launch from Launch Complex 2 for the US Space Force in Q3 and a mission to the Moon for Nasa aboard Electron and Rocket Lab's spacecraft bus platform Photon in 2021.