Rocket Lab to launch 50th mission from Mahia port

Rocket Lab was scheduled to launch its 50th Electron rocket from the Onenui Station launch site at Māhia today. The No Time Toulouse rocket was set to fly at 6.15am.

Rocket Lab was set to launch for the 50th time this morning from its launch site on Onenui Station at Mahia.

The “No Time Toulouse” mission will be a major milestone for the company since Electron missions began in May 2017. It was scheduled to blast off at around 6.15am today.

Lifting off from Mahia’s Launch Complex 1, the mission was to deploy five satellites for French IoT company Kinéis.

The mission is the first of five dedicated Electron launches for Kinéis, a company backed by private and public investors - including the French Government’s space agency CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales) and international space-based solutions provider CLS (Collecte Localisation Satellites) - to improve global IoT connectivity.

Across these five launches, Rocket Lab will deploy Kinéis’ complete constellation of 25 satellites.

“The launch has been tailored specifically to meet Kinéis’ mission requirements, giving them greater control over launch schedule, orbit and deployment parameters than would be possible on a larger rideshare mission,” a Rocket Lab spokesperson said.

“Tailored mission parameters for this launch include an instantaneous launch window.

“After the first Curie engine burn to circularise the Kick Stage’s orbit, Curie will ignite again for an eight-second burn to set a specific argument of perigee, enabling Kinéis to deploy five satellites to a precise orbit,” the spokesperson said.

“All five satellites will be deployed in a precise sequence in singles and as pairs to build out the constellation exactly as Kinéis needs it.

“Finally, Curie will conduct a perigee lowering burn to reduce the Kick Stage’s orbital lifetime to keep space sustainable.”