Rocket Lab delay caused by wind

Rocket Lab cancelled launching its second Electron rocket yesterday due to high winds.

The company opened the 10-day launching window from its Ma¯ hia Peninsula site on Friday, but highaltitude winds mean a launch is unlikely before Monday afternoon.

Rocket Lab spokeswoman Morgan Bailey said the rocket had been four years in the making, but the 200 engineers behind its creation were not frustrated by the delay.

‘‘Every one here is very much focused on the task at hand.’’

The 23-metre carbon-fibre Electron rocket, named ‘‘Still Testing’’, was planned to be rolled onto the launch pad yesterday afternoon.

Rocket Lab will attempt to launch it today at 2.30pm instead. If unsuccessful, it will try again between 2.30pm and 6.30pm daily until Sunday December 17.

Rocket Lab launched its first Electron rocket in May this year, three days into its launch window. Adverse weather delayed that flight too.

It launched successfully but did not reach orbit as planned.

All going to plan, this rocket will fly for 10 minutes and release three satellites into orbit. It is the first attempt to do so from a private launch site in New Zealand.

Deploying satellites is what the Electron rocket was built to do.

Bailey said it was monitoring the weather constantly but conditions were not the only factor the launch depended on.

The rocket would be armed with equipment, such as sensors, to test its performance.

At least 30,000 data points on it had to be aligned perfectly before it could launch, she said.