Rocketlab's Electron Rocket Fails on 13th Launch.

Video from the channel Scott Manley about Electron, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 9:21. Language: English. Video type: News.

Scott Manley analyzes the in-flight failure of Rocket Lab Electron's 13th launch, the Pics or It Didn't Happen mission, launched from New Zealand. The primary payload was a Canon Electronics observation satellite, accompanied by several Planet Labs SuperDoves, all bound for a 500 km sun-synchronous orbit. Rocket Lab moved the launch up a day to dodge a stretch of bad weather.

The first stage performed normally and separation was clean. The second stage took the rocket to about 3.8 km/s; video signal was then lost, around five and a half minutes after liftoff, though telemetry kept coming in. That telemetry no longer showed acceleration: the vehicle reached an apogee of 194.8 km and fell back into the atmosphere, likely breaking up after covering less than a thousand kilometers. The company's statement placed the failure at the four-minute mark. The author recaps the Electron's design: about ten tons with propellant, a carbon-fiber structure, and electric-pump Rutherford engines burning RP-1 and liquid oxygen. The first stage carries nine engines and the second a single vacuum-optimized one, with three batteries; two of them are jettisoned in the so-called hot swap, scheduled for 6 min 20 s, after the failure occurred.

In the footage, the nozzle's glow fades, and according to telemetry, acceleration dropped from about 1.3 g by around 20% before falling to zero, with a possible attitude change. The author leans toward an engine failure, perhaps electrical in origin, though he considers it unlikely to be related to the hot swap. Rocket Lab will have to investigate the cause with the FAA, and the next flight will remain grounded until then.