Rocketlab says that they are powering towards an attempt to recover an Electron booster soon. They say flight 17. The last launch, the early July one that failed, was fittingly flight 13. So the fourth one yet to come. Rocketlab still has nine launches on its 2020 manifest, though some of the last ones may slip to early 2021. Which suggests to me a recovery attempt around October perhaps.
https://twitter.com/RocketLab/status/129...5437616128
Peter Beck (Rocketlab boss) says '
Spot the odd one out, S1 recovery booster'. (Photo by Peter Beck, apparently taken in Rocketlab's rocket factory in Huntington Beach CA.)
The little card on the odd-one-out booster reads "Warning - Do not rotate tank - Person working inside"
If watching giant cranes in Boca just isn't enough, Rocketlab is going to have a go this afternoon. 21:14 UTC, 5:14 PM EDT, 2:14 PM PDT Launching from Mahia.
Edit: Seems to have be pushed back to 22:02 UTC 6:02 PM EDT, 3:02 PM PDT.
https://twitter.com/RocketLab/status/131...2125298688
This will be their 15th Electron launch. (Flight 17 is the one they say they will try to recover.) Payload is one small earth observation satellite by Canon, a twin to one that failed to reach orbit on an earlier launch, plus nine little 3-u cubesats for Planet Labs. These are also earth observation satellites. All the details on Michael Baylor's website here.
https://nextspaceflight.com/launches/details/5060
Rocketlab photo of Electron on the pad a few minutes ago
Rocketlab is having another go.
Today Oct 28.
5:14 PM EDT, 2:14 PM PDT, 21:14 UTC
Rocketlab livestream here
Tim Dodd livestream here
Rocketlab photo from 2 hrs ago
The rocket launched beautifully, the customer satellites (Planet Labs and Canon) are in orbit, and they are communicating with their owners.
https://twitter.com/rocketlab
This was their 15th launch and they say that they are going to try to recover the booster on their 17th.
Rocket Lab photo. The entire Electron rocket is black and the white areas are frost on the LOX tanks. The black parts are kerosine rocket fuel tanks or engine bay skirts.
I like Rocketlab! They are like a mini-SpaceX.
Looks like Rocketlab has moved up their first booster recovery attempt to a window opening the 16th of this month. They give all their launches names and this one is "Return to Sender".
The announcement
https://twitter.com/RocketLab/status/132...8584324096
A little video
Rocketlab launch has been pushed back a few minutes due to an airplane over the launch area. They appear to have recycled the start-time for their stream about 20 minutes.