Update September 18, 9:47 p.m. EDT: Rocket Lab noted that the delay was due to “a ground systems sensor trigger.”
Rocket Lab had to abandon the launch of its 53rd Electron rocket on a mission for French Internet of Things company Kinéis. The rocket was aborted before takeoff, after all nine Rutherford engines had started firing about two seconds early.
The mission, dubbed by Rocket Lab as “Kinéis Killed the RadIOT Star,” was scheduled to launch from Launch Complex 1’s Pad A on Sept. 19 at 11 a.m. NZST (September 18, 7 p.m. EDT, 2300 UTC). Because this was an instantaneous launch window, Rocket Lab had to change course and forgo other launch attempts on Thursday (local time) and look for a future launch opportunity.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Rocket Lab said that “Electron’s flight computer aborted the launch due to a ground systems sensor and safely shut down the engines. Electron, the launch platform, and the Kineis payload are all healthy.”
As of 9:30 p.m. EDT (0130 UTC), a new release date has not been announced.
Just as the Electron rocket engines were firing, the abort of the 'Kinéis Killed the RadIOT Star' mission was announced.
Mission background: https://t.co/9UV0ShGvcz
Look: image.twitter.com/ecPcTgP7si
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) September 18, 2024
“While the first mission referred to the city of Kinéis ('No Time Toulouse'), the name of this second mission is inspired by music, with a slight throwback to the late 1970s, with the hit by the British group The Buggles, 'Video Killed the Radio Star', Kinéis said in a statement. “The play on words Radio/RadIoT recalls the French company's commercial ambition to capture 30% of the global IoT market in the medium term.”
Following the 'No Time Toulouse' mission, launched on 19 June 2024, this will be the second of five missions planned to complete the Kineis constellation of 25 satellites in low Earth orbit.
“The Kinéis teams are ready to build on the success of the first launch. They have taken advantage of this first, delicate technical experience of placing our first 5 satellites and are delivering real technical performance in the simultaneous management of the 5 new satellites, in addition to the 5 already in the air,” said Alexandre Tisserant, president of Kinéis in a statement. “Rocket Lab’s Electron launcher has greatly contributed to this success, thanks to the precision with which it has injected our nanosatellites into their positions.
“The IoT revolution is underway. Thanks to our space-based connectivity, we will be able to connect any object anywhere in the world in near real time. Go Kinéis!”
The satellites are designed to enable greater use of technology in remote destinations around the world in three main areas: tracking, monitoring and alerting.
“Kinéis’ spatial connectivity applications are used in numerous fields that today represent major challenges for humanity, its activities and its environment: prevention of natural risks (detection of forest fires, floods, pollution, etc.), monitoring of infrastructure and energy networks (detection of anomalies, predictive maintenance, etc.), monitoring of transport and logistics, agriculture, traceability of wild and farm animals, and monitoring of commercial and leisure maritime activities,” the company writes.
10 hours left until launch! 🚀
In just 10 hours, @RocketLab will launch 5 new Kineis IoT satellites into space, marking a step forward in our mission to connect any device, anywhere. This puts us halfway towards our goal of building a constellation of 25 satellites that offer the most advanced IoT solutions. image.twitter.com/J22vtbJekG
— Kineis IoT (@KineisIoT) September 18, 2024
Deployment of the satellites will begin after the second of two planned ignitions on the Electron Kick Stage, which will take place just over one hour and five minutes after liftoff.
“After the Curie engine fires for the first time to circularize the initial stage’s orbit, Curie will fire again for eight seconds to establish a specific point of perigee, allowing Kinéis to deploy five satellites at a precise location,” Rocket Lab wrote about the deployment. “The five satellites will be deployed in a precise sequence, individually and in pairs, to build the constellation exactly as Kinéis needs it.”
While specific dates for the next three launches following this midweek flight have not been announced, Kinéis said the general launch schedule was “between June 2024 and early 2025.”
“We are excited to partner with Kinéis again on this transformative project to advance the future of global connectivity. The precise deployment capabilities of our Electron launcher are crucial to the success of the Kinéis constellation,” Rocket Lab Founder and CEO Sir Peter Beck said in a statement. “This second launch isn’t just about placing satellites; it’s about enabling a new era of global IoT integration. Together, we are laying the groundwork for unprecedented innovation and connectivity.”
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