Rocket Lab investigating rocket battery overheating
Monday, 26 February 2018
Rocket Lab is investigating what caused a rocket battery to overheat and start smoking at its manufacturing facility near Auckland Airport on Sunday night.
Rocket Lab spokeswoman Morgan Bailey said fire emergency services were called as a precaution to its site in Mangere at 7pm on Sunday after a battery on an Electron rocket overheated and started smoking.
She said she did not know what action was being made on the rocket when the battery overheated, but the company was looking into it.
The company engineers and builds its Electron rockets at its south Auckland headquarters. It does not launch them there.
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Nobody was injured and no property was damaged, she said.
A fire service spokesman said 32 staff were sent to the scene, where they stayed for four hours.