The launch of the Electron booster was postponed due to weather and will now take place on Monday, May 2.
The primary reason for the launch delay is unfavorable weather conditions, but the company is taking the time to make final checks on its recovery system for the Electron rocket reusability test.
After a busy week of capture testing, and while we wait for weather to improve, we are taking an additional day for final helicopter and recovery system optimization ahead of our first mid-air capture attempt. Liftoff is scheduled for Monday during a nearly two-hour window. The time is 2235 GMT.
The upcoming launch, called "There And Back Again," will be the first attempt by the company to recover the first stage of an Electron booster.
The company said in a mission that the plan calls for the first stage to launch as normal, then fall back to Earth with a series of complex maneuvers designed to enable it to survive the extreme heat and forces of atmospheric reentry. A heat shield and a parachute will slow the fall of the rocket so it can be captured by a helicopter.
In the past, Rocket Lab has recovered boosters from the ocean and practiced mid-air catches of dummy rockets, but hasn't yet attempted to catch an Electron returning from space.
The helicopter will return to the stage to land after catching after avoiding an ocean splashdown.
The There And Back Again mission is not focused on the electron recovery test.
Three demonstration satellites for startup E-Space, two batches of Picosatellites for an Internet of Things constellation, and a flight arranged by Spaceflight, Inc., are just some of the customers that Rocket Lab will launch 34 satellites into on the flight.
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