REPORT BY ROCKET LAB

US orbital launch provider Rocket Lab has today confirmed it will open a 14-day launch window this month to conduct the company’s first fully commercial launch. 

The mission, named ‘It’s Business Time’, includes manifested payloads for launch customers Spire Global and GeoOptics Inc., built by Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems.

The 14-day ‘It’s Business Time’ launch window will open on Friday April 20, 2018 NZT.

During this time a four-hour launch window will open daily from 12.30pm NZT.

‘It’s Business Time’ will launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. Licensed to launch every 72 hours, Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 is the world’s only private orbital launch facility.

Rocket Lab is the only private, dedicated small launch provider globally that has deployed satellites to orbit.

‘It’s Business Time’ marks the fastest transition a private launch provider has made from test program to fully commercial flights.

This mission follows just three months after Rocket Lab’s January 21, 2018 launch “Still Testing”, which successfully deployed an Earth-imaging satellite for Planet and circularised the orbit of two weather and AIS ship tracking satellites for Spire Global using Rocket Lab’s in-house designed and built kick stage.

“It’s Business Time represents the shift to responsive space. We always set out to create a vehicle and launch site that could offer the world’s most frequent launch capability and we’re achieving that in record time,” said Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck.

31 October 2018

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