Posted: Sun, Dec 8, 2019, 11:05 AM ET (1605 GMT)
Rocket Lab successfully launched several smallsats early Friday on a mission that also tested the ability to recover the Electron's first stage. The Electron lifted off at 3:18 am EST (0818 GMT) from the company's New Zealand launch site and placed seven smallsats into low Earth orbit. Those satellites include one from a Japanese company intended to create artificial meteor showers and six "PocketQube" satellites for a variety of technology demonstrations. The Electron's first stage was upgraded for this mission with technologies to enable it to make a guided re-entry, and the company said initial results of that test looked promising as the company plans to eventually recover and reuse the stage. The launch was the sixth and final Electron mission of 2019.
