Rocket Lab prepares for lift-off

The Electron rocket taking off from Mahia in May. Photo/Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab is again preparing for lift-off as a new nine-day launch window opens today at 2.30pm.

The company, which has its corporate headquarters in the United States and manufacturing and operations in this country, plans to conduct a test launch from Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1 on Mahia Peninsula.

This follows on from the disappointment of December's planned test launch, which was aborted only seconds before lift-off.

A spokesperson for the business said that the decision not to go ahead with the previous launch was largely due to the weather conditions not being compatible with rocket's required specifications for a successful launch.

While the temperatures were within safe parameters for the previous launch, Rocket Lab had set conservative parameters for test flights that led to the vehicle performing a safe auto-sequence abort.

Rocket Lab said that there had been no modifications made to the rocket used in December and that the launch will again depend on the weather.

The spokesperson would not pick a day when the rocket was most likely to launch but did say the conditions looked favourable today.

However, the test launch attempt would only proceed if conditions were ideal for launch.

Due to the nature of launching rockets, planned lift-offs are often subject to multiple and subsequent postponements, or scrubs, to allow for small, technical modifications and to wait for ideal weather conditions, Rocket Lab said.

The spokesperson urged members of the public not to head to the site for what could be a long wait and instead watch the proceedings via a live stream.

"People can go by all means but they might be in for a long wait," she said.

"What we don't want is people arriving thinking there will be a launch straight away on Saturday afternoon."

However, if rocket-spotters wanted to make a day of it (or few days) at the beach then they could be in for an exciting time.

Wairoa Mayor Craig Little said having the launch site on the Mahia Peninsula was putting Wairoa on the map.

"Lots of people are out-of-towners."

If people come to watch the launch at the unofficial viewing site on Blucks Pit Rd, in Nuhaka, and it doesn't happen for a few days they still stay and explore the district, he said.

More about the conditions for the launch will be known this morning.

For the next nine days there will be a four-hour launch window daily from 2.30pm.

The spokesperson said that while a large portion of the team was working on launch activities this week, the rest of the team was currently ramping up production on five other Electron vehicles.

In May Rocket Lab made history from this site with the successful inaugural Electron test.

However its planned second launch attempt in December was called off after bad weather and technical difficulties led to a number of scrubbed launches, including one which was aborted seconds from scheduled lift-off.

The upcoming second test launch is set to blast off carrying an Earth-imaging Dove satellite for Planet and two Lemur-2 satellites for Spire.

This test will enable Rocket Lab to gather crucial data and test systems for the deployment stage of a mission.