Californian startup Rocket Lab celebrates successful launch from New Zealand

By teleteria

Rocket Lab, an American startup headquartered in Huntington Beach, California, has successfully deployed three commercial satellites in space.

The Electron rocket, named ‘Still Testing’, fired from Rocket Lab’s base on the M%u0101hia Peninsula in the northern extremities of New Zealand.

This follows a failed test in May of last year, and raises hopes for further tests and deployments of satellites. Still Testing deployed three satellites, including an earth imaging satellite for Planet, and two Lemur-2 satellites for weather and ship tracking firm Spire.

Rocket Lab CEO and founder Peter Beck said: “Reaching orbit on a second test flight is significant on its own, but successfully deploying customer payloads so early in a new rocket program is almost unprecedented. Rocket Lab was founded on the principal of opening access to space to better understand our planet and improve life on it. Today we took a significant step towards that.”

RELATED STORIES:

Rocket Lab currently has five Electron vehicles in production, with the next launch expected to take place in early 2018.  At full production, Rocket Lab expects to launch more than 50 times a year, and is regulated to launch up to 120 times a year, more than any other commercial or government launch provider in history

Beck added: “Today marks the beginning of a new era in commercial access to space. We’re thrilled to reach this milestone so quickly after our first test launch.”

Share
Share

Featured Articles

Amelia DeLuca, CSO at Delta Air Lines on Female Leadership

Driving decarbonisation at Delta Air Lines, Chief Sustainability Officer Amelia DeLuca discusses the rise of the CSO and value of more women in leadership

Liz Elting – Driving Equality & Building Billion-$ Business

Founder and CEO Liz Elting Turned Her Passion into Purpose and Created a Billion-Dollar Business While Fighting for Workplace Equality – and Winning

JPMorgan Chase: Committed to supporting the next generation

JPMorgan has unveiled a host of new and expanded philanthropic activities totalling US$3.5 million to support the development of apprenticeship programmes

How efficient digital ecosystems became business critical

Technology & AI

Mastercard: Supporting clients at a time of rapid evolution

Digital Strategy

Why Ceridian has boldly rebranded to Dayforce

Human Capital