StriX-α is the first of two test satellites from Synspective and part of the company's planned constellation of 30 StriX Earth observation platforms.

It will be able to detect millimeter-level changes in position, elevation, tilt, etc. for objects on Earth's surface -- specifically critical infrastructure like roads, bridges, buildings, and power grids -- day or night, cloud cover or clear.

The all-seeing satellite owes this ability to its Synthetic Aperture Radar, or SAR.

SAR shoots a continuous signal, that can travel through any weather event happening below, down at Earth. The signal is then reflected back to the satellite as soon as it hits something on the surface.

Those reflected signals received by the satellite are then used to create an image of the ground.

This type of infrastructure monitoring will remove the need to send people to conduct routine surveys and help prevent and correct issues with the critical elements that make our society function.

Image: A StriX satellite. Credit: Synspective

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

The company names each Electron mission after a unique or quirky element of the flight. Past examples include "That's A Funny Looking Cactus" in honor of odd looking cacti in New Mexico where one payload customer was based, and "Return To Sender" for the first mission where the first stage was recovered and brought back for inspection and partial reuse.

The Electron mission for Flight #17 is named “The Owl’s Night Begins” -- a nod to the mission payload’s ability to see clearly and in high resolution in both day or night.

Rocket Lab recently completed a set of improvements to Electron that allows the rocket to take an extra 75 kg to orbit on each mission.

Another big change is a new, wider payload fairing to accommodate larger payloads, which will make its first flight on this mission.

Electron flew for the first time in May 2017 and is powered by Rutherford engines -- the first electric engines to power an orbital rocket -- and costs approximately $6 million (USD) per mission before reuse is accounted for.

It has two stages, with an option to add a third stage based on mission needs.

It is currently expendable, but Rocket Lab is developing and testing recovery technology and systems on the rocket's first stage.

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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