NZ rocket company lines up November launch

Space rocket start-up Rocket Lab will have a third go at its maiden commercial launch in November after technical hitches during the year.

Space delivery start-up Rocket Lab is hoping it will be third time lucky as it prepares for another go at its maiden commercial launch from New Zealand.

The US-owned company currently runs the world's first privately-owned orbital launch site, in the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand's North Island.

Although successfully getting satellites into orbit during a test run in January, its first full commercial delivery has been delayed several times due to technical issues, most recently in June.

It has now announced it will have a third go at the mission in November, before a separate mission for NASA in December named ELaNa XIX.

Both will launch from the Mahia complex.

Rocket Lab has laid out an ambitious plan for its 17-metre Electron rockets to take satellites into space for clients every two weeks next year and weekly in 2020, and faces an increasingly full manifest.

It focuses on delivering small payloads at relatively low costs and became the first small launch provider to get satellites into orbit this year.

The June attempt was put on hold over issues with a motor controller during pre-launch, an issue that also caused delays earlier in the year, which the company says it's now addressed by modifying the part.

"This year our team focused on scaling-up production to churn out Electron rockets at a rate of one per month," chief and founder Peter Beck said.

"Now that we're hitting that production rate, we're working to get them launched at the same frequency by the end of this year, and increasing cadence into 2019."


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Source: AAP


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