The engineers organising and attempting to launch New Zealand's first space rocket still hope for lift-off today, after a technical hitch stalled this morning's launch.
A helicopter was dispatched from the launch site at Great Mercury Island to Whitianga to pick up another hydraulic coupling from an engineering supplier.
The coupling malfunctioned at the morning launch, with the leaking freezing nitrogen oxide effectively sticking the Atea-1 rocket onto the launch pad as white vapour poured from it.
The launch company, Rocket Lab Ltd, started up three years ago with the aim to develop a series of Atea rockets that would make space more accessible, company director Mark Rocket said last week.
"This is the first step in a long journey," he said.
The manufacturers still planned to get their 6-metre-long craft up to Mach 5, flying 120km into the air, before splashing down in the sea, where it would be picked up.
Atea is the Maori word for space as the team wanted an indigenous name for the rockets.
The first rocket Atea-1 has been named Manu Karere by the local Thames iwi, which means Bird Messenger.
NZPA