Public fireworks shows may be scarce this weekend due to the pandemic, but Rocket Lab is ready to fill the gap. He is planning to launch his 13th mission, “Photos or Didn’t Happen,” from a complex on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula at 5:19 pm The start window is open until 6:03 pm EST. This is just the third Rocket Lab release this year, due in large part to the pandemic, and it includes some significant payloads.
The main payload is a Canon satellite, CE-SAT-IB, which will demonstrate high-resolution, wide-angle cameras for Earth imaging; if all goes well this will pave the way for mass production. Planet, the company behind Earth’s largest network of observation satellites, also includes five of its next-generation SuperDove satellites. It is also a major mission for the UK with the launch in space of its first Faraday cubesat mission to help startups and researchers load payloads.
