Rocket Lab executed its second orbital mission today, sending six small satellites and an experimental drag sail into orbit from an oceanside launch pad in New Zealand.
Liftoff of the Electron rocket came at 4:50 p.m. New Zealand time on Nov. 11 (7:50 p.m. PT Nov. 10) at Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula.
This satellite launch mission was nicknamed “It’s Business Time,” in reference to its fully commercial nature as well as in tribute to one of the songs by Flight of the Conchords, a New Zealand parody-pop duo.
Rocket Lab’s business time had to be postponed twice over the past seven months, due to concerns about a motor controller for the first-stage Rutherford engines. But this time around, the countdown went off without a hitch, and the three-stage rocket rose into the southern sky to enter a pole-to-pole orbit.
