Rocket Lab launches two radar imaging satellites from Virgina's Eastern Shore
CBSN
A Rocket Lab Electron booster blasted off from Virginia's Eastern Shore on Thursday evening, boosting a pair of commercial radar imaging satellites into orbit that are capable of "seeing" through clouds, in daylight or darkness, to monitor the planet below.
Making Rocket Lab's 34th flight, the Electron's nine Rutherford first-stage engines thundered to life at 6:38 p.m. EDT, smoothly pushing the 59-foot-tall rocket away from launch complex 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA's Wallops Island, Virginia, flight test facility.
Climbing away to the southeast over the Atlantic Ocean, the Electron raced past the speed of sound one minute after liftoff, rapidly accelerating out of the thick lower atmosphere and disappearing from view.
