Rocket Lab will launch 10 Earth-imaging satellites today. Here's how to watch.

News
By Tariq Malik
last updated

Liftoff is set for 5:21p.m. EDT (2114 GMT).

Update for 3:30 pm ET: Rocket Lab is now targeting today's launch for 5:21 p.m. EDT (2121 GMT).

Original story:

A Rocket Lab booster will launch 10 new Earth-imaging satellites into orbit from New Zealand today (Oct. 28) and you can watch it live online. 

The U.S.-based launch provider will loft an Electron booster carrying nine SuperDove imaging satellites for the company Planet and telescope-toting microsatellite for Japan's Canon Electronics Inc. Liftoff is set for 5:21p.m. EDT (2121GMT) from the Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula. 

You can watch the launch here and on the Space.com homepage, courtesy of Rocket Lab. The company's launch webcasts typically begin about 15 minutes before liftoff, but can change if Rocket Lab adjusts its launch times. The mission will also be carried on Rocket Lab's YouTube page here.

"It's almost time for these sats from [Planet] and Canon to go to space," Rocket Lab wrote in a Twitter update Tuesday (Oct. 27). 

The nine SuperDove satellites riding on "In Focus" will join Planet's current Flock 4e constellation of Earth-imaging satellites. That network is design to capture global medium-resolution images of the Earth every day. 

The Canon Electronics microsatellite is known as CE-SAT-IIB. "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," Rocket Lab has said in a mission description.

Rocket Lab originally aimed to launch this mission, which the company has nicknamed "In Focus," on Oct. 21 but called off the flight due to "a small issue with an oxygen sensor," according to Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck.

The company's launch window for the flight runs through Nov. 3.

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Tariq Malik
Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.