BREMEN, Germany — Rocket Lab launched a payload for an undisclosed commercial customer Nov. 20, just hours after the company announced plans for the launch.
The Electron lifted off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 7:43 a.m. Eastern. Rocket Lab declared the “Follow My Speed” mission a success about an hour later.
The company did not disclose the payload for the launch other than that it was a single satellite for a confidential commercial customer.
This is not the third time in less than six months that Rocket Lab has not disclosed the customer for a commercial mission. A launch in June carried an undisclosed payload later linked to EchoStar.
An Aug. 23 launch carried five satellites for an undisclosed customer. The satellites were later named Calistus A through E in the Space-Track database, with Rwanda listed as the owner. That has raised suspicions that the owner is E-Space, a company that has previously made spectrum filings through the country.
Another noteworthy element of the launch was that it took place with little advance public notice. Rocket Lab sent out a press release announcing the Follow My Speed mission less than five hours before liftoff, although airspace notices in recent days suggested a launch was upcoming.
This orbital Electron launch took place within 48 hours of a launch of Electron’s suborbital variant, HASTE, from Launch Complex 2 on Wallops Island, Virginia, Nov. 18. Rocket Lab said that launch carried a payload for the Missile Defense Agency developed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab along with several secondary payloads from government and industry, all intended to test missile defense technologies.
With these launches Rocket Lab has now conducted 18 Electron launches this year, a record for the company. All 18 have been successful. That contrasts with the rest of Western small vehicle developers, which fly only a few times a year, at most.
“These two launches serve as great examples of the team’s skill at delivering mission success for our customers anywhere, anytime, and no matter the mission profile,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said in a statement, calling Electron “the champion of small launch globally.”