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Rocket Lab (Aukland, New Zealand) launched seven payloads to orbit on Nov. 11. The mission, named “It’s Business Time,” marks Rocket Lab’s second successful orbital launch of its all-composite Electron launch vehicle and deployment of customer satellites.

Satellites were deployed for Spire Global (San Francisco, CA, US), Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems (Irvine, CA, US), Fleet Space Technologies (Beverly, Australia) and the Irvine CubeSat Stem Program (ICSP, Irvine, CA, US). Curie also carried NABEO, a drag sail technology demonstrator, designed and built by High Performance Space Structure Systems GmbH (Munich, Germany), to passively de-orbit inactive small satellites and reduce space junk.

Rocket Lab founder and chief executive Peter Beck says the mission marks a new era in access to space. “With two orbital launches down for 2018, we’re not resting on our laurels,” says Beck. “We have a burgeoning customer manifest, so we’re moving onto the next mission within a few weeks – the incredibly exciting ELaNa 19 mission for NASA in December.” 

Rocket Lab is poised for high-frequency launches in 2019 with production facilities designed to enable mass Electron production, and a private launch complex licensed to launch up to 120 times per year.