Rocket Lab completes second launch for NASA mission

Rocket Lab successfully completed the second of two Electron launches for NASA’s PREFIRE climate change-focused mission, completing a turnaround of two launches within eleven days. ‘PREFIRE and Ice’ lifted-off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand at 3:15pm NZST on Wednesday June 5, deploying the second of two satellites for the PREFIRE mission to a 525km orbit. The first mission, ‘Ready, Aim, PREFIRE’, was successfully launched days earlier on May 25 from the same launch pad, demonstrating Rocket Lab’s ability to launch consistently and in quick succession to meet customer mission requirements. With both satellites now in orbit, they will crisscross the Arctic and Antarctic to study heat lost to space from the Earth’s polar regions. Heat loss measurements collected by the PREFIRE mission will help to improve climate and ice-loss models to better predict Earth’s ice, sea level, and weather changes. The mission is expected to operate for 10 months. Electron has now delivered 185 satellites to space across all its launches, with this mission being Rocket Lab’s 49th Electron launch overall and seventh mission of 2024. Electron remains the United States’ second-most frequently launched rocket annually and one of the most frequently launched rockets globally.