Rocket Lab announces launch of two Explorer-class spacecraft

Rocket Lab (RKLB) announced its two Explorer-class spacecraft for NASA and the University of California Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory have been launched, beginning their journey to Mars to study the Red Planet’s magnetosphere. NASA’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers mission was launched by Blue Origin on November 13, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 03:55 p.m. EST. Rocket Lab has successfully established contact with the spacecraft and they are generating power. Now in orbit, the spacecraft will undergo commissioning by Rocket Lab’s spacecraft operations team in the coming days, beginning with early checkouts including orientation stabilization and solar array deployment, followed by commissioning of flight computers, multiple antenna, guidance and navigation sensors and actuators, and the propulsion system leading up to the mission’s first maneuvers.