Rocket Lab Launches Flawless US Space Force Satellite ‘Monolith’

Rocket Lab Electron rocket has successfully launched a US military satellite that made its way to space from its New Zealand launch site, carrying a small demonstration satellite from the US Space Force called the Monolith.

The company's Electron rocket launch ended up in failure back in May. Peter Beck, Rocket Lab founder and CEO, tweeted shortly after the event that the payload was deployed and praised the team for a "flawless" launch.

Monolith's desired bearing is in low-Earth orbit around 370 miles above our planet. The satellite will demonstrate the use of a deployable sensor, "where the sensor's mass is a substantial fraction of the total mass of the spacecraft, changing the spacecraft’s dynamic properties and testing ability to maintain spacecraft attitude control," Rocket Lab explained in the official mission webpage. The outcome from the demonstration will help companies build more affordable satellites within shorter timeframes.

Rocket Lab's 20th mission failed in May when it suffered an "anomaly" after the second stage ignition. The company lost both its Electron rocket and BlackSky's Earth observation satellite payloads as a result of its second launch failure within the span of a year.

Rocket Lab determined that the root cause was a problem with the second stage engine igniter system that "induced a corruption of signals within the engine computer," after investigating the issue.  The company says it has since implemented fixes "to prevent any future reoccurrence."