New Zealand rocket launch postponed due to wind gusts

Ground controllers scrubbed a launch in New Zealand Thursday that would have sent five small satellites into orbit.

Private aerospace company Rocket Lab grounded the launch due to high winds and rescheduled for this weekend.

"We have several days left in the launch window for this mission and will share a new launch attempt date soon," the company tweeted.

"We gave it our best shot, but today the winds won," Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck added.

With more strong winds forecast for the launch site on New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula, Rocket Lab said the "Don't Stop Me Now" mission is now set to lift off no earlier than 12:43 a.m. EDT Saturday.

The original March 30 launch was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Rocket Labs' Electron rocket will send five satellites into orbit, including a Boston University experiment to measure solar winds and the Earth's magnetosphere.

The experiment aims for a better understanding of how solar winds change the environment in space near Earth and is part of NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative, which promotes the use of small satellites for new space science experiments.

Other payloads include three spy satellites for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office and an M2 Pathfinder communications satellite for the University of New South Wales and the Australian government.

The launch will be the 12th for an Electron rocket, which is considered a small vehicle with about 34,000 pounds of thrust on liftoff. By comparison, SpaceX's Falcon 9 is capable of 1.7 million pounds of thrust.

The mission will not include any testing or development for Rocket Lab's efforts to make the first-stage booster reusable, as several recent launches have done.

Paul Brinkmann contributed to this report

Related Links
Rocket Science News at Space-Travel.Com

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Winds scrub Rocket Lab launch from New Zealand
Washington DC (UPI) Jun 10, 2020
Winds have scrubbed a rocket launch planned in New Zealand early Thursday morning is to propel five small satellites into orbit, including a Boston University experiment to measure solar winds and the Earth's magnetosphere. A new target launch date has not been announced. California-based Rocket Labs, which owns the New Zealand launch site, is scheduled to send the satellites into orbit aboard the company's Electron rocket at 12:43 a.m. EDT from New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula. The launch was set for 2:32 a.m. if delays happen. ... read more