Updated at 6:15 pm EST.
WASHINGTON – An Electron Rocket Lab rocket failed to reach orbit during a launch on July 4 after a problem during the second stage of rocket burn.
The Electron rocket took off from the company’s launch complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand, at 5:19 pm EST. The launch was originally scheduled for July 3, but was delayed two days due to bad weather in the forecast, only to have the company raise the launch to July 4 based on a new weather assessment.
The initial phases of the launch appear to be going as planned, although the vehicle’s passage through “max-q”, or maximum dynamic pressure, appears to be rougher than was seen in previous releases. The on-board video taken shortly before the separation of the first stage showed that the material appeared to come off the rocket, although it was unclear whether a decal was simply applied to the rocket or something more substantial.
The video on board the rocket froze about five minutes and 45 seconds after takeoff, or three minutes after the seconds-burning stage. Six and a half minutes after takeoff, a launch controller on the company’s launch webcast said, “Initiating the accident response plan.”
Telemetry from the rocket, shown on the webcast, showed that the rocket’s altitude dropped from about 194 kilometers to less than 165 kilometers for about 90 seconds before that information was removed from the screen. The company ended the internet broadcast 11 minutes after takeoff, two minutes after the second stage of the rocket should have been quenched and the launch stage, with its seven-satellite payload, deployed.
“An issue was experienced today during the launch of Rocket Lab that caused the loss of the vehicle. We deeply regret the customers on board Electron, ”the company tweeted about 25 minutes after takeoff. “The problem occurred late in the flight during the second stage of burning. More information will be provided as it becomes available. “
“We missed the flight late on the mission. I am very sorry that today we were unable to deliver satellites to our customers, ”Peter Beck, CEO of Rocket Lab, tweeted after the ruling. “Rest assured, we’ll find the problem, fix it, and be back on the platform soon.”
The launch was 13 for the Electron rocket. The vehicle had 11 consecutive successful launches after the completion of the maiden launch of the rocket in May 2017 due to a telemetry issue involving range safety systems, and not an issue with the rocket itself.
The main payload for the launch was CE-SAT-1B, a 67-kilogram imaging satellite built by Canon Electronics, the launch of which was organized by Spaceflight Inc. The satellite, capable of taking images with a resolution of 90 centimeters, was intended to demonstrate Spacecraft technologies as the company prepared the mass production of similar satellites.
“This launch is very critical for Canon Electronics as we are launching a satellite in which we have dramatically increased the proportion of internal component development compared to the previous launch,” said Nobutada Sako, group executive at Canon Satellite Systems Laboratory. Electronics. said in a pre-launch release. Canon launched a similar satellite, CE-SAT-1, in 2017.
The rocket carried five cubesats of SuperDove images developed by Planet. These satellites are updated versions of their original Dove line of cubesats, with additional spectral bands to support geospatial applications in fields such as architecture.
The seventh satellite in the Electron was Faraday-1, a six-unit cube developed by British startup In-Space Missions. The satellite is the first in a company series designed to carry hosted cargoes. Faraday-1 included payloads for various clients such as Airbus Defense and Space, which flew a payload called Prometheus 1 to test a software-defined reprogrammable radio.
This mission, called “Photos Didn’t Happen” by Rocket Lab, featured the shortest response time among Electron’s missions to date. The previous Electron launch, which included three satellites and small satellites from the National Reconnaissance Office for American and Australian universities, was launched on June 13.
After a halt in launch activity caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Rocket Lab had planned to increase its launch activity in the second half of the year. The next mission after this would be to carry out with an even shorter shift, Beck said in an interview on June 18. The company was also expecting a first Electron launch from the Launch Complex 2 in Virginia which, prior to this failure, was expected to occur before the end of the summer.
