Rocket Lab reschedules next launches

Capitalism in space: Rocket Lab has now announced that it has delayed its next two launches from mid-October to mid-November.

A two-week window is planned for the first launch — from Nov. 11 to Nov. 24 —when its Electron rocket will deploy two satellites into low-Earth orbit. The company aims to deploy two more satellites in the second launch for the mission after Nov. 27.

Both launches are scheduled to take place at the Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Māhia Peninsula.

The announcement does not provide an explanation for this delay. However, Rocket Lab had originally scheduled these launches for August/September, but lockdown restrictions in New Zealand due to its panic over COVID-19 had forced it to trim its launches there by half for the rest of the year. Rather than do five as planned, the company is only going to do two, and it appears those two are the launches now set for November.