Rocket Lab to launch electron mission for European Space Agency

Rocket Lab (RKLB) announced it has been selected to launch a dedicated Electron mission for the European Space Agency for the first time, to deploy the first pair of satellites for a future navigation constellation for Europe, LEO-PNT. Rocket Lab will launch two “Pathfinder A” spacecraft for ESA, provided by European satellite prime contractors Thales Alenia Space and GMV, from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 no earlier than December. The spacecraft will be deployed to a 510km low Earth orbit as part of a mission to test a new approach of providing location, direction, and timing services from satellites in low orbit – otherwise called LEO-PNT. ESA’s LEO-PNT demonstration mission will assess how a low Earth orbit fleet of satellites can work in combination with the Galileo and Egnos constellations in higher orbits that provide Europe’s own global navigation system.