Rocket Lab on December 15 said it had launched its Electron rocket into space from a facility in New Zealand, the SpaceX rival's first flight since a mission failure in September.
The rocket, carrying a satellite for the Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, a Japan-based Earth imaging company, blasted off from a launch pad on the country's North Island about 5:05 p.m. local time (0405 GMT).
After passing through normal mission milestones, it fired a "kick stage" to lift the satellite into its final orbit about 9 minutes into the flight, to cheers in the mission control room. The satellite reached orbit about 50 minutes later.
