Rocket Lab launched a fourth set of satellites for the French company Kinéis 8 February, Continuing his leadership position in the small launch sector. Rocket Lab Electron rocket launcher started from a launching complex 1 companies, about 15:43 in the Eastern time. Носій розгорнув корисний вантаж із п’яти супутників трохи більше ніж через годину після старту на орбітах із запланованою висотою 646 кілометрів і кутом нахилу 97 degrees.
Запуски були чотирма з п’яти, which Rocket Lab performs for Kinéis, French company, which is developing an orbital grouping for Internet of Things services, after launching in June, September and November 2024 year. The companies signed a contract for five launches of Electron in 2021 year to deploy the full Kinéis group.
Last fall, Kinéis company executives announced, that the full grouping will be commissioned in the middle 2025 year. At the same time, the company announced, that initial services, including IoT connectivity and automatic identification system tracking (AIS), may begin at the beginning 2025 year by means of the first 10 satellites.
23 the company announced in December, that its founding CEO Alexandre Tisserant has resigned. Christoph Vassal, chairman of the company's supervisory board, is temporarily leading Kinéis and plans to hire a new chief executive in the first quarter.
This launch, for Rocket Lab, became the first this year. Last year, the company carried out 16 Electron launches, включаючи два запуски суборбітального варіанту ракети HASTE.
Успішні пуски зробили Rocket Lab провідним гравцем на ринку, оскільки багато його конкурентів зазнали технічних чи фінансових труднощів.
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-launches-fourth-set-of-kineis-satellites/