Orbit the next test for Rocket Lab

Liquid oxygen vapour surrounds Rocket Lab’s “It’s a Test” Electron rocket in May, as it prepared today to launch from the Onenui Station launch complex. Picture supplied

A second rocket is expected to blast into space from Mahia within the next few months on the back of extensive investigations into why the first test vehicle’s flight had to be terminated before it reached orbit.

Rocket Lab’s second Electron rocket, named ‘Still Testing’, is undergoing final checks and preparations ahead of being shipped to Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 shortly.

American-New Zealand aerospace company Rocket Lab successfully launched an Electron rocket into space from a private launch complex at Onenui Station on May 25.

Although the rocket did not make orbit as intended, an internal review of data from the test flight found the launch had to be terminated due to an independent contractor’s ground equipment issue, rather than an issue with the rocket.

“The vehicle performed very well, though it takes the smallest thing to fail a flight. This is why we test and why we have called the next flight “Still Testing”, said Rocket Lab’s vice-president of New Zealand operations, Shaun O’Donnell.

“We are feeling good leading into the next flight, but we are still testing and failures are possible.”

Rocket Lab’s investigation board has identified the root causes of the first flight’s problem and the corrective actions needed.

“We have demonstrated Electron was following its nominal trajectory and was on course to reach orbit,” Rocket Lab chief executive Peter Beck said.

“It was disappointing to see the flight terminated in essence due to an incorrect tick box.

“We can say we tested nearly everything, including the flight termination system.

“We were delighted with the amount of data we were able to collect during an exceptional first test launch. Rocket Lab’s telemetry systems provided data verifying Electrons capabilities and provided us with high confidence ahead of our second test flight.

“The call to terminate a launch would be tough for anyone, and we appreciated the professionalism of the flight safety officials involved.”

The telemetry data loss that led to the termination of the flight has been directly linked to a key piece of equipment responsible for translating radio signals into data used by safety officials to track the vehicle performance.

It was discovered that a contractor failed to enable forward error correction on this third-party device, causing extensive corruption of received position data.

Rocket performed well“The failure was first indicated by the fact that Rocket Lab’s own equipment did not suffer similar data loss during launch. Further confirmation of the cause was demonstrated when replaying raw radio-frequency data — recorded on launch day — through correctly- configured equipment also resolved the problem.

“The fix for the issue is simple and corrective procedures have been put in place to prevent a similar issue in future. No major changes to the Electron launch vehicle hardware have been required and the company has authorised production of four additional launch vehicles as it prepares for commercial operations ahead of the test flight programme.”

The Federal Aviation Administration, the primary body responsible for licensing the launch, has overseen Rocket Lab’s comprehensive investigation and will review the findings, after Rocket Lab’s engineers spent the past two months working through an extensive analysis.

The investigation involved the review of over 25,000 channels of data collected during the flight, in addition to extensive testing at Rocket Lab facilities in California and New Zealand.

Rocket Lab’s investigation team determined the launch, named ‘It’s a Test’, was terminated due to a data loss time-out, which was caused by misconfiguration of telemetry equipment owned and operated by a third-party contractor supporting the launch from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1.

Four minutes into the flight, at an altitude of 224 km, the equipment lost contact with the rocket temporarily and, according to standard operating procedures, range safety officials terminated the flight. Data, including that from Rocket Lab’s own telemetry equipment, confirmed the rocket was following a nominal trajectory and the vehicle was performing as planned at the time of termination.