Trajectory & orbital insertion
Ascent path is a representation — true ascent telemetry isn’t public.
Provider
Rocket Lab
Provider type
Commercial
Orbit
LEO
Mission type
Test Flight
Launch site
New Zealand
Date
Thu, 25 May 2017 04:20:00 GMT
Orbital launch #
#5643 ever
Failure
Third-party contractor supporting the launch misconfigured ground equipment that translated radio signals from the rocket into data used by range safety officials. That caused “extensive corruption of received position data,†resulting in the data loss that led safety officials to trigger the rocket’s flight termination system.
Mission
This is the first test flight of the Electron rocket. Built and operated by Rocket Lab, Electron is meant to offer low-price launches for the small-sat market.