Rocket Lab Fails In Electronic Mission For The Third Time

Rocket Lab's Electron has again failed to carry out a cooperation mission with Capella Space (photo: twitter @RecketLab)

JAKARTA Rocket Lab Electron was supposed to launch Capella Space's radar imaging satellite at Launch Complex 1, New Zealand on Tuesday, September 19 at 02.55 EDT. However, this launch failed.

Quoted fromSpacenews, the launch was initially postponed by 20 minutes from what was planned due to weather conditions in space. After being postponed, take off and the first stage of the climb went smoothly.

When the separation phase switched to the second stage, the live video suddenly disappeared, precisely when the single engine Rutherford turned on. The telemitri displayed on the webcast before the broadcast disappeared showed the vehicle's speed down or the engine was malfunctioning.

At that time, the launch director heard saying, 'All stations, we experienced anomaly.'Webcasts were immediately turned off without providing clearer information. However, they acknowledged that their launch mission failed.

Rocket Lab CEO, Peter Beck, apologized on his social media account. He also apologized to the launch partner, Capella Space, and said that it was a very difficult day.

"The team is already working on the root cause. We will find it, repair it and return to thepad quickly," Beck said.

This launch adds to the row of failures that occurred in Electron over the past three years. Electron in July 2020 failed to reach orbit when the upper stage engine stopped premature and Electron in May 2021 failed due to engines that stopped running after seconds of running.