WASHINGTON — A Rocket Lab Electron failed during a launch of Capella Space radar imaging satellite Sept. 19.
The Electron lifted off at 2:55 a.m. Eastern from Launch Complex 1 in Latest Zealand after a delay of about 20 minutes due to space weather conditions. The liftoff and ascent of the primary stage appeared to go as expected, with “nominal” calls by controllers up until stage separation.
Live video from the second stage, though, was lost right after separation, when the only Rutherford engine ignited. Telemetry displayed on the webcast for several seconds after stage separation showed the vehicle’s velocity decreasing, suggesting the engine had malfunctioned ultimately.
“All stations, we now have experienced an anomaly,” the launch director said about 45 seconds after stage separation. Rocket Lab soon concluded the webcast without providing any additional information, but did acknowledge that the mission was a failure.
The failure is the third for the Electron in slightly greater than three years, with the previous two involving problems with the upper stage. An Electron in July 2020 failed to achieve orbit when the upper-stage engine shut down prematurely, which the corporate blamed on a faulty electrical connection. One other Electron launch in May 2021 failed when the upper-stage engine shut down seconds after ignition. Rocket Lab said that failure was attributable to problems with an igniter that corrupted signals used for the stage’s thrust vector control system, causing the engine to shut down.
The failure raises recent questions on the reliability of the rocket and the corporate’s ability to extend the vehicle’s launch rate. Rocket Lab had projected flying 15 Electron missions this 12 months, including flights of a suborbital version of the rocket called HASTE. This was the ninth Electron launch of the 12 months and the 41st overall, making the corporate the leader amongst Western operators of small launch vehicles.
The payload on the rocket was the second Acadia synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellite developed by Capella Space. The previous Electron launch Aug. 23 launched the primary Acadia satellite, a part of a four-launch contract between Rocket Lab and Capella.
That first Acadia satellite is now in business operations, said Payam Banazadeh, chief executive of Capella, during a panel discussion at World Satellite Business Week Sept. 15. “The factory is stuffed with these Acadia satellites,” he said, with more planned to launch in the approaching quarters, including with Rocket Lab.
Acadia satellites are larger than previous generations, with a mass of about 150 kilograms, which he said was based on the decreasing cost and increasing availability of launch. “In some unspecified time in the future it didn’t really make sense to be as small,” he said, increasing the dimensions of the satellites to enhance their performance. “The standard of the info mattered excess of launching more satellites, a minimum of for the shoppers that we’re targeting.”