An Electron rocket carrying seven small satellites lifted off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site Monday at 9:27 p.m. EDT (0127 GMT on July 18), after being delayed by a few days due to bad weather, Space reported.
Rocket Lab recovered the booster with a ship and will haul it back to land for inspection and analysis. It has recovered boosters on several previous missions, including one earlier this year.
The main goal of Booster recovery was to get the seven satellites to orbit safely. And that was done on schedule, over a nearly hour-long span beginning about 49 minutes after liftoff.
"Spacecraft swarms refer to multiple spacecraft autonomously coordinating their activities to achieve certain goals," Rocket Lab wrote in a mission description.
AMK/PR