Rocket Lab's 13th launch ends in failure, after rocket experiences problem mid-flight

Rocket Lab's 13th mission ended in failure on Saturday, after the company's rocket experienced some kind of problem after launching to space. As a result, Rocket Lab lost its rocket, as well as all the satellites it carried on board.

The company's Electron rocket successfully took off at 5:19PM ET from Rocket Lab's primary launch facility on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. The launch seemed to proceed just fine for the first crucial minutes, but about six minutes into the launch, live video from the rocket stalled. At that point, Rocket Lab's livestream indicated that the rocket started to lose speed, and the vehicle dropped in altitude.

Rocket Lab eventually cut the livestream. Afterward, the company revealed that the Electron rocket had been lost during flight.

An issue was experienced today during Rocket Lab's launch that caused the loss of the vehicle. We are deeply sorry to the customers on board Electron. The issue occurred late in the flight during the 2nd stage burn. More information will be provided as it becomes available.

- Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) July 4, 2020

Rocket Lab's CEO Peter Beck apologized for the failure on Twitter. "I am incredibly sorry that we failed to deliver our customers satellites today," he tweeted. "Rest assured we will find the issue, correct it and be back on the pad soon."

The mission, named "Pics Or It Didn't Happen," carried mostly Earth-imaging small satellites. The primary payload was Canon Electronics' CE-SAT-IB, designed to demonstrate Earth-imaging technology with high-resolution and wide-angle cameras. The rocket also carried five SuperDove satellites from the company Planet, designed to image Earth from above. The last payload was a small satellite called Faraday-1, from In-Space Missions, which hosted multiple instruments from startups and other organizations that needed a ride to space.

Planet's CEO Will Marshall announced the loss of the satellites on Twitter, noting that the company has plans to launch even more satellites this summer on two separate launches. "While it's never the outcome that we hope for, the risk of launch failure is one Planet is always prepared for," the company said in a statement. Planet is about to launch up to 26 of its SuperDove satellites on a European Vega rocket in August, from South America.

Since its inception, Rocket Lab has put 53 spacecraft into low Earth orbit on 12 separate missions, with this weekend's launch the third for Rocket Lab this year. The majority of the company's flight have been successful. Rocket Lab's very first flight in 2017, called "It's a Test," was the only flight that didn't operate according to plan; the rocket successfully launched and made it to space, but didn't reach orbit. All of Rocket Lab's other missions have been picture perfect since then, making today's flight the first major failure for the company.