Failure reason: Third-party contractor supporting the launch misconfigured ground equipment that translated radio signals from the rocket into data used by range safety officials. That caused “extensive corruption of received position data,” resulting in the data loss that led safety officials to trigger the rocket’s flight termination system.

This is the first test flight of the Electron rocket. Built and operated by Rocket Lab, Electron is meant to offer low-price launches for the small-sat market.

Mission type: Test Flight · Orbit: Low Earth Orbit

Rocket: Electron · Provider: Rocket Lab