Hat-trick! Rocket Lab’s busy week

Hat-trick! Rocket Lab’s busy week
The Electron mission takes off from Māhia on Thursday. (Image: Rocket Lab)
Henry Burrell
Not one to be slowed by New Zealand’s slow crawl out of lockdown and into the holiday season, Rocket Lab has had a very busy week with three announcements.On Thursday, it launched two satellites into orbit for customer BlackSky from its Māhia Peninsula launch site, but more impressive was the descent of the Electron launch vehicle back to Earth.The first-stage rocket parachuted into a recovery zone about 200 nautical miles off NZ’s coast, observed for the first time by a helicopter to ensure a safe splashdown.Rocket Lab hopes the he...

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