Watch: Rocket Lab’s spectacular abort after engines fire

Rocket Lab's 11am launch from Mahia was aborted at the last second this morning. Image / Rocket Lab livestream

Rocket Lab got to the last second of its 10-second countdown for a launch, with engines firing, before aborting its ‘Kinéis Killed The RadIOT Star’ mission from Mahia this morning.

The countdown begins at 25.44 in the video below.

In a post on X, Rocket Lab called it “a safe, on-pad abort”.

Safety systems are fully automated once the T-minus 10 countdown begins.

Voices on the comms radio can be heard on the livestream saying “auto-abort sequence” and “fire suppression systems active”.

The question: “Please confirm stage 1 and stage 2 umbilicals are engaged,” is answered with “Working on getting stage 1 umbilical re-engaged”.

Founder and chief executive Peter Beck posted about 11.50am: “Just an abort triggered by a piece of ground support equipment not reaching its target in the allocated time. We like everything on the ground to be just as happy as everything in the sky”.

Rocket Lab followed up with a post saying: “During ignition at T-0, Electron’s flight computer aborted on a ground systems sensor trigger and safely shut down the engines. Electron, the launch pad, and Kineis’ payload all remain healthy”.

Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket was set to launch five satellites for Kineis, a French firm building a global IoT (internet-of-things) network. It aims to offer satellite connectivity for internet-connected devices anywhere in the world.

If successful, it would have been Rocket Lab’s 53rd launch.

Just an abort triggered by a piece of ground support equipment not reaching its target in the allocated time. We like everything on the ground to be just as happy as everything in the sky. https://t.co/y7elp3v39A

— Peter Beck (@Peter_J_Beck) September 18, 2024

Rocket Lab said it would not attempt another launch today as Kinéis Killed The RadIOT Star required an instantaneous launch at 11am.

The firm usually has a window of several hours when air, sea and spaceways are clear to reach a desired low-Earth orbit.

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.