LAS VEGAS — Rocket Lab launched the fifth radar imaging satellite for Japanese company Synspective Aug. 2, continuing work with its largest commercial customer.
An Electron lifted off from Pad B of Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 at 9:39 a.m. Eastern. The rocket’s kick stage deployed the StriX spacecraft into a planned 543-kilometer orbit inclined at 43 degrees about an hour later.
The satellite is the fifth synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite launched by Tokyo-based Synspective, but the first in a third generation of spacecraft. “The upgraded synthetic aperture radar sensor will provide images with even higher resolution and wide-area imaging,” said Toshihiro Obata, head of the company’s technology strategy office, in a pre-launch statement, although he did not elaborate on those capabilities.
The satellite is also the company’s first to go into a mid-inclination orbit rather than a sun-synchronous orbit. That orbit, he said, will “enable high-frequency imaging and imaging from multiple directions” of locations in low- and mid-latitude regions, at the expense of not being able to observe locations at high latitudes.
Synspective has launched all five of its satellites on Electron, dating back to 2020. A sixth launch is scheduled for later this year, followed by a set of 10 launches from 2025 through 2027 under a contract between Rocket Lab and Synspective announced June 17. Rocket Lab did not disclose the value of the contract but said it was its largest single launch contract to date.
Shortly after signing the launch contract, Synspective announced it raised 7 billion yen ($48 million) in a Series C round. That funding, the company said, would go towards mass production of its satellites, with a goal of deploying as many as 30 satellites by the end of the decade.
“It’s wonderful to have launched our second mission for Synspective in five months as we continue our longstanding launch…
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