Thursday, November 19, 2020

Rocket Lab Mission Planned For Thursday Evening, Hopes For Rocket Recovery

Long Beach-based Rocket Lab is attempting another launch today, at 5:44pm PST, from its launch site in New Zealand. The mission, "Return to Sender", will include the first attempt to recover the first stage booster of the company's rocket, which would enable it to lower the costs of launching payloads. The company is webcasting the launch online. Only SpaceX has the capability to re-use its rockets today, allowing SpaceX to significantly undercut the traditional costs of getting a payload to orbit. Rocket Lab has focused on putting small satellite payloads into orbit.

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