The ELaNA 32 payload is part of NASA's Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) program that aims to partner NASA with U.S. universities.

The partnership enables science, mathematics, technology, and engineering students to gain real-world experience building and operating small CubeSat satellites, which provides NASA the opportunity to test emerging technologies for future space missions at low cost and low risk to the agency.

ELaNA 32 will feature an eight CubeSat system from Boston University called ANDESITE (Ad-Hoc Network Demonstration for Extended Satellite-Based Inquiry and Other Team Endeavors) that will attempt to measure local space and atmospheric environment densities at varying resolutions in the near-Earth magnetosphere.

That's a complicated way of saying it will "sense space and atmospheric environments in Earth's magnetic bubble."

The mission also carries three payloads for the National Reconnaissance Office flying as part of the Rapid Acquisition of a Small Rocket program.

The final payload is the M2 Pathfinder satellite, a collaboration between the University of New South Wales Canberra Space and the Australian Government. This satellite will test communication platforms for future Australian space activities.

Image: The ANDESITE team with their payload. Credit: TriSept.

Electron is Rocket Lab's answer to the massively growing demand for dedicated small satellite launchers.

Rocket Lab names each Electron after a unique or quarky element of the mission. Past examples include "That's A Funny Looking Cactus" in honor of funny looking cacti in New Mexico, where one payload customer was based, and "Running Out Of Fingers" in reference to flight #10 having no more fingers on which to count missions.

This Electron rocket's name for Flight #12 is "Don't Stop Me Now".

On this launch, Rocket Lab will continue testing recovery technology and systems on Electron.

The first stage will include hardware and sensors to inform future recovery efforts as well as reaction control system thrusters to orient the booster during its re-entry descent.

Electron is powered by Rutherford engines, the first electric-pump-fed engine to power an orbital rocket.

Each Electron costs approximately $6 million (USD). It is currently fully expendable, though that will soon change.

Electron flew for the first time in May 2017.

The rocket is small and impressive, standing just 17 m / 56 ft tall and just 1.2 m / 3 ft 11 in wide. The rocket has two stages -- with an option to add an optional third stage based on mission needs.

It can deliver a 225 kg payload into a 500 km Sun-Synchronous Orbit.

STATS

First Stage
Length: 12.1 m / 40 ft
Engines: 9 x Rutherford
Thrust: 162 kN / 36,000 lbf (sealevel)
192 kN / 43,000 lbf (vacuum)
Fuel: RP-1 Kerosene / Liquid Oxygen

Second Stage
Length: 2.4 m / 7 ft 10 in
Engines: 1 x Rutherford
Thrust: 22 kN / 4,900 lbf
Fuel: RP-1 Kerosene / Liquid Oxygen

Curie Kickstage - Third Stage (optional)
Engines: 1 x Curie
Thrust: 0.12 kN / 27 lbf
Fuel: Non-specificed "green" monopropellant

Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1A (LC-1A) on the Māhia Peninsula on New Zealand's North Island is part of the company's first launch site, with another under construction at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia.

An isolated location, the Māhia launch site hosted its first orbital launch attempt of Electron in May 2017 and its first successful orbital launch in January 2018.

Together with Rocket Lab's third launch pad in Virginia, their launch sites can support up to 132 Electron launch opportunities every year.

The Māhia location has two launch pads (LC-1A and LC-1B) and two separate integration hangers to permit simultaneous and protected processing of two payloads for flight at the same time.

LC-1A is the original pad at the Māhia site, with LC-1B launching its first mission in February 2022.

Photo: Rocket Lab