'In Focus' is a rideshare mission to low Earth orbit for Planet and Spaceflight Inc.’s customer Canon Electronics. The mission will deploy a total of 10 satellites to precise and individual orbits from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand.
Planet has nine of their latest generation SuperDove satellites booked on the mission for deployment to a 500km morning-crossing Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO). Each of the nine SuperDoves will be integrated with and deployed from Rocket Lab’s Maxwell dispensers, the industry’s lightest CubeSat dispenser in its class. Planet’s Flock 4e’ of SuperDoves will join the company’s constellation of Earth-observation satellites already on orbit providing medium-resolution global coverage and near-daily revisit.
The 10th and final payload, Canon Electronics Inc.’s CE-SAT-IIB, was arranged by satellite rideshare and mission management provider Spaceflight Inc. CE-SAT-IIB is a technical demonstration microsatellite developed by Canon Electronics Inc. It has a middle-size telescope equipped with an ultra-high sensitivity camera to take night images of the Earth and small size telescopes which are suitable for CubeSat use.
- Mission Name: In Focus
- Rocket: Electron
- Electron Name: In Focus
- Launch Window: Launch is targeted for no earlier than Oct 21 UTC / Oct 22 NZT
- Launch Time: Launch window open from 21:14 - 22:03 UTC / 10:14 - 11:03 NZT
- Launch Site: Launch Complex 1
A livestream will be made available approximately 15 - 20 minutes prior to a launch attempt. Rocket Lab will post links to the webcast when live via Facebook and Twitter. The livestream is viewable at www.rocketlabusa.com/live-stream and Rocket Lab's YouTube channel