Rocket Lab launched for the fourth time from US soil and for the first time this year earlier this morning when it sent the NROL-123 classified payload to orbit from Wallops Island, Virginia. Liftoff was at 3:25 AM EDT after the company’s engineers resolved a brief hold.
The classified payload was launched aboard Rocket Lab’s nine-engine Electron from Launch Complex (LC) 2 at Wallops, and its fourth from that facility. Electron is a 59-foot tall rocket capable of launching around 300 kilograms of mass.
The mission — designated “Live And Let Fly” by Rocket Lab, carried the fourth and last from the Rapid Acquisition of a Small Rocket (RASR) contract agreed to by NRO and Rocket Lab in 2020.
