Rocket Lab's second test launch window opens Friday - perfect conditions needed

Friday, 8 December 2017

The launch window is opening for Rocket Lab's second test flight from its Māhia Peninsula launch centre.

Rocket Lab is due to roll its Electron rocket out onto the pad at the company's Māhia Peninsula launch complex on Friday, at the start of a 10-day launch window.

It will be the second test launch for the 23-metre carbon-fibre Electron rocket, which is capable of carrying a 150kg payload into orbit.

Blast off for the first test launch, in May.

The maiden test launch was in May, when an Electron rocket became the first orbital-class launch vehicle to reach space from a private launch facility.

That test did not go without a hitch though, with a software glitch four minutes after blast off - when the rocked was 224km above ground - causing engineers to briefly lose contact with the vehicle. At that point the flight had to be terminated.

* Rocket Lab reveals what went wrong in terminated maiden flight

* Rocket Lab to stream next month's Electron launch over the internet**

The company has a daily four-hour launch window from 2.30pm for the next 10 days.

'Today we'll roll out the vehicle to the pad and begin fuelling operations,' Rocket Lab chief executive Peter Beck told the The AM Show on Friday.

'We're looking for really ideal conditions, much more ideal than we would usually require,' he said. 'That's because we have over 30,000 sensors on board to measure the performance of the rocket.'

'We're running a giant experiment, basically.'

The launch came after a huge team had worked on the project for many years. Such events were great fun, but stressful, Beck said.

Asked about the worst case scenario, he said: 'The worst thing that could happen is what happened to (Elon Musk's company) SpaceX last year where they blew a vehicle up on the pad. That destroys your pad infrastructure.

'But we have all the safety plans in place and the vehicle has a flight termination system, so if it wanders off course in a very narrow corridor, then it's destructed.'

Beck said the launch would be visible from Black's Beach, near the base of the peninsula, but the event was also being livestreamed, with cameras on the rocket providing views of 'all the best stuff'.

While it is a test launch, the rocket will also have a commercial payload, with two satellites owned by United States company Spire Global, which is mostly in the business of tracking ships and planes, and another by fellow US firm Planet Labs which is for aerial photography.

Once fully commercial operations started, it would be possible to launch rockets in much more difficult conditions, Beck said.

'The vehicle itself is incredibly robust. We can launch in very very high winds and quite difficult climatic environment.'