The spectacular Electron rocket takeoff. Photo / Supplied
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What's next for Rocket Lab: Peter Beck talks US Air Force launch, more
RocketLab has successfully launched its sixth Electron rocket from its site on Māhia Peninsula.
The launch was announced soon after 6pm, and is thought to have sparked at least two reports to police of "flares" off the Hawke's Bay Coast.
The reports came from as far as Haumoana.
The rocket and its Curie upper stage will place three small satellites into orbit through the US Air Force's Rapid Agile Launch Initiative, RocketLab reported.
Yesterday was the first day of the window, but the launch was stood down for additional payload checks.
The satellite - STP-27RD - will be the company's fifth orbital mission, and second this year.
The Space Test Program (STP) is a US Government organisation responsible for mission design, spacecraft acquisition, integration, launch, and onorbit operations for the Department of Defense's most innovative space experiments, technologies and demonstrations.
The STP-27RD payload consists of three satellites weighing in at a total of 180kg.
One will be the Falcon Orbital Debris Experiment (Falcon ODE), sponsored by the US Air Force Academy, which will evaluate ground-based tracking of space objects - a project that should ultimately help clear up space junk.
The second is the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate (or AFRL/RV), a joint Swedish-US experiment to explore technology developments in avionics miniaturisation, software-defined radio systems, and "space situational awareness". That's a catch-all term that covers attempts to track space "weather" (such as magnetosphere fluctuations), near-Earth objects such as asteroids and, again, space debris.
The third satellite onboard will be "Harbinger, a commercial small satellite built by York Space Systems, [which] will demonstrate the ability of an experimental commercial system to meet US Government space capability requirements."
The satellites will lift-off on board an Electron rocket before being deployed to a circular orbit by Electron's Kick Stage, a nimble upper stage designed to insert payloads with precise accuracy before deorbiting itself and leaving no space junk behind.
In March, Rocket Lab successfully launched a communications satellite into low-Earth orbit for US military agency DARPA.
In an interview with the Herald last month, Rocket Lab co-founder Peter Beck emphasised that all three satellites being launched for the US Air Force are "non-operational payloads, they're R&D research payloads".
The local index staged a turnaround.