00:00Hey space fans, Tarek Malik with Space.com. I'm here at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility
00:05where we're waiting for Rocket Lab's first U.S. launch of an Electron rocket.
00:09It's a gorgeous night. I'm not sure if you can see, but we're minutes away from launch.
00:13Whoa! There's the Moon and Jupiter and Venus.
00:18It's a little too early for Saturn, but we're just a few minutes away from the launch.
00:24And I'm here with Alex Mankovic. Is that Mankovic?
00:28I'm 43. Welcome to the inaugural Electron launch from U.S. soil.
00:33That's right. That's right. So we're just minutes away from this launch here.
00:37I'm going to stay out of his way because he's taking some awesome photos.
00:41And hopefully we're going to get a good show.
00:43It's been a very smooth countdown all night long.
00:47Gorgeous sunset launch. That's the rocket right over there.
00:52It's a little blurry in my video feed, but hopefully we're going to get a good shot.
01:00Oh, you can hear the rest of the media, folks. Let's see if I can get a shot.
01:03That's the reporters over here on top of the hill.
01:08There's a lot of wind in the upper levels of the atmosphere here.
01:11The jet stream.
01:11Right here.
01:12It's a Mankovic launch until today.
01:15So here we are tonight.
01:16It's about two miles behind me.
01:17And I'll let you get a...
01:19Here's the rest of the folks. There's an observatory dome there.
01:22Here's the moon.
01:26All right.
01:28So.
01:33It's been a very smooth...
01:34There was one issue.
01:36Oh, there it goes.
01:42Wow.
01:43All right.
02:28It's a spectacular liftoff right there.
02:37It's so bright and it was so loud oh there's a plume wow look at that plume right there
03:09now this is rocket labs Virginia is for launch lovers a spectacular liftoff you saw here from
03:16rocket labs brand new US launch site their first ever launch from US soil looks to be going real real
03:25smooth.
03:30It's like there was a satellite way up above that just just passed overhead you can see that moving dot
03:36and you can still see it wow.
03:46It's carrying three Hawkeye 360 radio reconnaissance satellites for Hawkeye 360.
03:53They're a Virginia based company here in Virginia although rocket lab is based up so we had an engine cutoff
04:03right there.
04:05And there's second engine second stage ignition so you just saw that wink out right there that was stage separation.
04:16And you can still see it wow it is still all going all the way up there.
04:24That is amazing launching right over Orion's shoulder as it lifted off there you can see in my camera phone
04:38you can see the stars of Orion that's the belt right there in the middle.
04:43That is stunning still still visible as it's making its way to orbit.
04:51We'll see if we can see second engine cutoff in a minute.
04:57How'd it look to you Alex?
05:00Well I was a little late.
05:02Yeah but anyway I was waiting for a 32nd announcement.
05:08Yeah.
05:09I heard.
05:10So but I know I got some shots.
05:13Yeah.
05:13And I'm within good exposure range so.
05:17That's great.
05:19Wow you can really see the plume now.
05:29Look at that exhaust plume wow.
05:32Now it's crossing the shoulder of Orion.
05:35That's Beetlejuice right there.
05:41There it goes.
05:53Wow.
05:55That was stunning.
05:57And you can still see it.
06:05Wow.
06:06That was stunning.
06:07And you can still see it.
06:09We have no idea how to climb we have, so we're playing with fire.
06:16You can see it.
06:17It's right here.
06:19Oop!
06:20That's the second stage still on its way up.
06:24Doing its thing.
06:33Let's see if we can keep seeing it.
06:35Now you can really see Orion, those three stars of its belt, Beetlejuice to the central
06:43left there.
06:48Forgive me for the grainy quality of my camera phone.
07:06I can't believe we can still see it, Alex.
07:33Alright, it's getting a little hard to track now.
07:37So, I think I'm going to sign off for now and we're going to see how it looks on the
07:42real feed.
07:44We saw the rocket continue with orbit around the Earth.
07:48This mission is all about sending three different satellites.
07:52They're about the size of a microwave into Earth's orbit from the company Pockeye 360.
07:58What those are going to do, those are going to monitor radio frequency as they quickly flow.
08:02They're going to be going to monitor radio frequency in radio frequency as they quickly flow.
08:03And we're going to see how it's broadcast.
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