Rocket Lab launches Japanese Earth-imaging satellite into orbit from New Zealand

Rocket Lab launches Japanese Earth-imaging satellite into orbit from New Zealand
Space
15/12/2020
Mike Wall
© Provided by Space
A Rocket Lab Electron booster carrying the StriX-α Earth-imaging satellite for the Japanese company Synspective lifts off from the company's Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand on Dec. 15, 2020.
Rocket Lab just launched another small satellite to orbit.
A two-stage Electron booster lifted off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand launch site at 5:09 a.m. EST (1009 GMT) today (Dec. 15), carrying the first member of the "Strix" family of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites developed by the Japanese Earth-imaging company Synspective.
SAR-equipped spacecraft can view Earth's surface at any time of day or night and in all weather conditions; clouds and darkness do not deter radio waves. Synspective plans to build a constellation of 30 Strix spacecraft, which will "collate data of metropolitan centers across Asia on a daily basis that can be used for urban development planning, construction and infrastructure monitoring and disaster response," Rocket Lab representatives wrote in a mission description.

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