A Rocket Lab booster will launch 10 new Earth-imaging satellites into orbit from New Zealand today (Oct. 28) and you can watch it live online.
The U.S.-based launch provider will loft an Electron booster carrying nine SuperDove imaging satellites for the company Planet and telescope-toting microsatellite for Japan’s Canon Electronics Inc. Liftoff is set for 5:14 p.m. EDT (2114 GMT) from the Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula.
You can watch the launch here and on the Space.com homepage, courtesy of Rocket Lab. The company’s launch webcasts typically begin about 15 minutes before liftoff, but can change if Rocket Lab adjusts its launch times. The mission will also be carried on Rocket Lab’s YouTube page here.
“It’s almost time for these sats from [Planet] and Canon to go to space,” Rocket Lab wrote in a Twitter update Tuesday (Oct. 27).
Tomorrow we’ll be on the pad for the #InFocus mission from LC-1! It’s almost time for these sats from @planetlabs and Canon to go to space. Learn more: https://t.co/olXThrj4jRTarget launch time:UTC: 21:14, Oct 28PT: 14:14, Oct 28ET: 17:14, Oct 28NZT: 10:14, Oct 29 pic.twitter.com/Mkbw2hsTjvOctober 27, 2020
The nine SuperDove satellites riding on “In Focus” will join Planet’s current Flock 4e constellation of Earth-imaging satellites. That network is design to capture global medium-resolution images of the Earth every day.
The Canon Electronics microsatellite is known as CE-SAT-IIB. “It has a middle-size telescope equipped with an ultra-high sensitivity camera to take night images of the Earth and small size telescopes which are suitable for CubeSat use,” Rocket Lab has said in a mission description.
Rocket Lab originally aimed to launch this mission, which the company has nicknamed “In Focus,” on Oct. 21 but called off the flight due to “a small issue with an oxygen sensor,” according to Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck.
The company’s launch window for the flight runs through Nov. 3.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.
Source: Space.com