Watch 'The Owl Spreads Its Wings' Electron Rocket Launch

Video from the channel CNET Highlights about Electron, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 13:01. Language: English. Video type: Launch.

"The Owl Spreads Its Wings" was Rocket Lab's 30th Electron flight, commissioned by the company Synspective to place its StriX-1 satellite in low Earth orbit. The video shows the official broadcast of the liftoff from Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula. According to the commentators, the rocket carried Rutherford engine number 300 and the company's 150th satellite launched.

The rocket passes maximum dynamic pressure (max-Q) at just over 15 km altitude, with its nine Rutherford engines running normally. The first stage then shuts down, separates, and the vacuum-optimized Rutherford of the second stage ignites; shortly after, the fairing separates in two halves. At 131 km speed exceeds 8,000 km/h, and at 206 km it passes 19,000 km/h. Midway through the flight a hot battery swap takes place: the depleted batteries are jettisoned and a fresh one powers the engine's electric pumps. The broadcast also clarifies that the clouds at liftoff are steam from the water system that dampens the noise.

The second stage shuts down and the kick stage separates. Its Curie engine was to circularize the orbit after about 50 minutes of coasting and release StriX-1 around T+53 minutes. The broadcast cuts off before that point, so the video does not show the deployment. The commentators note that this was not a recovery mission, though they mention the recent test of a recovered Rutherford engine.