Rocket Lab closes out year with launch of Synspective’s first radar satellite

Rocket Lab’s seventh and final launch of the year delivered a small radar observation satellite into orbit for Synspective, a Japanese startup planning a fleet of 30 or more Earth-imaging spacecraft providing day-and-night imagery of cities around the world. The liquid-fueled Electron rocket’s kick stage deployed Synspective’s StriX-α demonstration satellite into a roughly 310-mile-high (500-kilometer) sun-synchronous polar orbit around an hour after liftoff, Rocket Lab said in a statement. More

(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 16)