The COVID-19 pandemic has forced Rocket Lab to postpone its next mission.

The California-based company announced earlier this week that it would be suspending its next launch, a mission nicknamed ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ that was scheduled to take-off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia peninsula on March 30.

Rocket Lab announced in an official statement that they postpone the mission following the New Zealand government’s announcement on 23 March to implement the Level 4 COVID-19 response, which means everyone is expected to effectively stay at home while all events are canceled and non-essential businesses are closed.

The launch is a rideshare mission that includes satellites from a range of customers, including NASA, a communications and tech demonstration satellite built by the University of New South Wales, Canberra Space and the Australian government. Rocket Lab announced that it has the full support of all of its customers in pausing operations and the company will be working with the New Zealand government and health officials, as well as its customers, in making a new schedule for the mission.

The space company was founded in New Zealand but now maintains a headquarters in Los Angeles. Rocket Lab also noted that despite pausing its production of new launch vehicles, it had taken an approach of readying rockets and launch pads ahead of time in order to meet rapid-response requirements from its customers.

According to TechCruch.

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