SpaceBreak—Rocket Lab Launches Synspective's StriX
Welcome to your owlish SpaceBreak for March 12th, 2024.
(Quick one today)
Breaking in Space:
StriX Takes to the Skies
The big news today is undoubtedly the launch by Rocket Lab, which was carrying Synspective’s fourth Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite for their growing constellation. The mission, “Owl Night Long”, launched at around 4:00am New Zealand time (11:00 EDT). According to Via Satellite, it’s a riff on the name of the satellite, StriX-3, as the owl’s scientific name is Strix Uralensis.
The other thing Via pointed out is that the Electron’s Kick Stage actually had to perform an “advanced mid-mission maneuver” to protect the satellite from the sun prior to deployment. It got where it’s going, though: a Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) at 561 km up.
(Interesting factoid I didn’t know was that all of the StriX satellites were launched by Rocket Lab, and I do wonder whether or not this might indicate that Rocket Lab can take advantage of their geographical position to focus on clients in Asia.)
“Synthetic Aperature Radar” sats use radar for imagery instead of light. This generally means that they cover a small amount of area than their more traditional EO counterparts, and the images are trickier to interpret. But they can penetrate through clouds quite easily, can see at night without issue, and can even penetrate through the ground and other solid objects to a certain extent. That makes it really useful for disaster relief and infrastructure monitoring, though it also makes it useful for a whole bunch of national security stuff.
There’s also coverage of the launch at SpaceNews and SatNews. SpaceNews made a good point about Synspective’s finances, pointing out that they’ve raised more than $200 million for their constellation, and that they’re expecting to have a 30-satellite constellation by 2026.
That said, I’m particularly fond of the SatNews story. Why? This:
Heck yeah. Looks like a hoot and a half.
Other Breaking Headlines:
NASA Lowers Budget Request for 2025, Asks for $25.4B (Via Satellite)
Japan creates multibillion-dollar space strategic fund to boost space industry (SpaceNews)
Analysts Assess the Industry Landscape for SATELLITE 2024 (Via Satellite)
Launch roundup – Starship poised for third integrated test flight (NASA Spaceflight)
What’s Next For the FY25 Budget Proposal (Payload)
CNN explores NASA's Columbia shuttle tragedy in riveting docuseries (Space.com)
Intelsat’s FlexMove Service Expands Land Mobility in India (Via Satellite)
Stratolaunch launches 1st rocket-powered flight of hypersonic prototype from world's largest airplane (Space.com)