"An
issue was experienced today during Rocket Lab's launch that
caused the loss of the vehicle," the company said on Twitter,
adding more information will be shared as available.
"We are deeply sorry to the customers on board Electron," the
Auckland, New Zealand-based company said. "The issue occurred
late in the flight during the 2nd stage burn."
Rocket Lab is one of a growing group of launch companies looking
to slash the cost of sending shoebox-sized satellites to low
Earth orbit, building smaller rockets and reinventing
traditional production lines to meet a growing payload demand.
The rocket's altitude peaked at 121 miles (195 km) roughly seven
minutes after liftoff before quickly decreasing, according to
in-flight telemetry on the company's live video feed.
It was aiming to send five tiny Earth imaging satellites from
Planet Labs, one microsatellite from Canon Electronics Inc., and
a cubesat from British company In-Space Missions into a
sun-synchronous orbit 310 miles above Earth.
"While it's never the outcome that we hope for, the risk of
launch failure is one Planet is always prepared for," Planet
Labs said in a statement on Saturday, adding it looked "forward
to flying on the Electron again" in the future.
(Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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