Electron : NeonSat-1A : LC-1A : 30 January 2026 (01:21 UTC)

[catdlr]

https://twitter.com/RocketLab/status/2017073890116456456

Rocket Lab
@RocketLab
·
Beautiful views of Electron's 81st launch of the "Bridging The Swarm" mission for
@kaistpr

Flicker Photos:  https://bit.ly/4t5ujXO

[catdlr]

Launch Pad Ground view of the launch

https://twitter.com/Peter_J_Beck/status/2017076079756976461

[Satori]

Did anyone made a copy of the published «launch kit»? Thank you!

[catdlr]

Did anyone made a copy of the published «launch kit»? Thank you!

Ask Steven Pietrobon in a PM. I'm not sure he does RL

[PM3]

This launch missed a sun-synchronous orbit.

Apogee: 552 km
Perigee: 526 km
Inclination: 97.4°

Assuming that an SSO is intended, it should be either at ~ 500 km height or at ~ 97.6° inclination. EO satellites usually reside at ~ 530-550 km height, therefore this looks to me like Electron missed the target inclination by 0.2 degrees.

[lightleviathan]

This launch missed a sun-synchronous orbit.

Apogee: 552 km
Perigee: 526 km
Inclination: 97.4°

Assuming that an SSO is intended, it should be either at ~ 500 km height or at ~ 97.6° inclination. EO satellites usually reside at ~ 530-550 km height, therefore this looks to me like Electron missed the target inclination by 0.2 degrees.

The target orbit was a 540km LEO so I'd say they hit the nail on the head.

[Galactic Penguin SST]

This launch missed a sun-synchronous orbit.

Apogee: 552 km
Perigee: 526 km
Inclination: 97.4°

Assuming that an SSO is intended, it should be either at ~ 500 km height or at ~ 97.6° inclination. EO satellites usually reside at ~ 530-550 km height, therefore this looks to me like Electron missed the target inclination by 0.2 degrees.

This seems to be intentional - the original NeonSat-1 was launched in 2024 to a similar orbit (along with NASA's ACS3 solar sail) and then gradually lowered its altitude, it's now in a 460 km orbit.