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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Rocket Lab is about to win the small satellite launch space race [arstechnica.com]

Life is pretty good for Rocket Lab and its founder Peter Beck right now. With two test flights of its Electron rocket completed in the last 10.5 months, the company says it will move into commercial operations later this month. The 14-day launch window for the "It's Business Time" mission, carrying two private payloads, opens on April 20.

In an interview, Beck said Rocket Lab hopes to fly eight missions in 2018 and reach a monthly launch cadence by the end of the year. The company's initial test flight [arstechnica.com] in May 2017 failed to reach orbit, but a second flight [arstechnica.com] in January of this year was almost entirely successful. Rocket Lab will become the first of a number of small-satellite launch companies to begin serving customers.

Previously: Rocket Lab Makes Suborbital Launch From New Zealand [soylentnews.org]
Rocket Lab's Second "Electron" Rocket Launch Succeeds, Reaches Orbit [soylentnews.org]

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