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.
01:47Wow.
02:03Wow.
02:26It'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 it's like there was a satellite way up above that just just passed overhead
03:35you can see that moving dot and you can still see it wow
03:46it's carrying three hawkeye 360 radio reconnaissance satellites for hawkeye 360. they're a virginia
03:54based company here in uh in virginia although rocket lab is based up so we had an engine cut off
04:03right
04:03there and there's second engine or second stage uh ignition so you just saw that wink out right
04:12there that was stage separation and you can still see it wow it is still all going all the way
04:19up there
04:24that is amazing launching right over orion's shoulder
04:31as it lifted off there you can see in my in my camera phone you can see the stars of
04:39orion that's
04:39the belt right there in the middle
04:43that is stunning still still visible
04:49as it's making its way to orbit we'll see if we can see second engine cutoff uh in a minute
04:57how'd it look to you alex
05:00well i was a little late
05:02yeah but anyway no i was waiting for a 32nd uh announcement yeah
05:17that's great wow you can really see the plume now
05:29look at that exhaust plume wow now it's crossing the shoulder of orion
05:35that's beetle juice right there
05:41there it goes
05:54wow that was stunning and you can still see it
06:04it's right here
06:05wow
06:16you can see it it's right here
06:18oh that's the uh 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
06:38those three stars of its belt
06:40beetle juice to the uh central left there
06:48forgive me for the grainy quality of my camera phone
07:03i'm here at wallets island flight facility we had a successful
07:15launch of the electron rocket here from the mid-atlantic regional spaceport
07:20in walps island now this is the electron rocket
07:23this is the first time rocket lab has launched this rocket from u.s soil
07:27the rocket is about 50 feet tall when it's fully stacked about three
07:32east in diameter all right it's getting a little hard to track now so
07:37i think i'm gonna sign off for now and we're gonna see
07:40how it looks uh on the real feed the video feed
07:48this mission is all about sending three different satellites
07:52they're about the size of a microwave
07:54each other from the company
07:56contact 360. what those are going to do
07:59those are going to monitor radio frequency as they
08:02organ flow
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