Rocket Lab is ready for the first commercial launch of the Electron missile

Rocket Lab is ready for the first commercial launch of the Electron missile

In the next two weeks, the US aerospace startup Rocket Lab will try to implement something that it did not do before: the commercial launch of the Electron rocket. This will be the third flight for Electron and the first of those that the company plans to launch monthly until the end of the year. On Friday, the launch was canceled due to problems with the tracking dish. But today, tomorrow, and every day for the next 14 days, the company will try to launch its ship in a 4-hour window, starting at 8:30 pm ET time.



The Electron rocket is too small for a rocket. Its height is four times smaller than the height of Falcon 9 - 55 feet against 230. But Electron can afford to be a crumb because it was built to accommodate small valuable cargo not more than 300 kilograms in low Earth orbit. Startups will also be inexpensive: only 4.9 million dollars.

The thing is that Rocket Lab plans to quickly and often bring small satellites into orbit. In the end, the industry of small satellites is gaining momentum: companies send from a dozen satellites simultaneously on the same rocket.

In May 2017, Rocket Lab launched the Electron rocket into space for the first time, but the transport did not go into orbit. Blame for everything was a communication failure on the ground. Due to bad weather, the second test flight of the company was delayed, which was called simply: "Still Testing" (Still Testing). But in January 2018, the rocket went into orbit and left there a cargo: three commercial satellites and a questionable disco ball called "The Star of Mankind."

On Friday, a 14-day cycle began, within which the missile will attempt to slip into a 4-hour launch window and leave the launch pad on the New Zealand peninsula of Mahia. The rocket will carry four satellites and a test probe equipped with a sail designed to disable non-operating satellites from orbit.