In article ,
says...

wrote:


"Rocket Lab, a California-based spaceflight company with its roots in New Zealand,
just launched its two-stage Electron rocket for the first time. The small launch
vehicle successfully lifted off from Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia
Peninsula of New Zealand at 12:20 a.m. ET on Thursday May 25?4:20 p.m. New Zealand
time. The successful liftoff marks the first time an orbital-class rocket has been
launched from a private launch facility."

See:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/spac...-first-flight/


It did not, however, reach orbit and it was expected to, so there's a
failure investigation going on.

I'm surprised they got as far as they did.

But yes, there is a bit of a PR spin going on in the news articles.
This was a test flight and it was mostly successful... mostly. But it
did not go into orbit, so it's not quite ready for paying customers who
expect their satellite to be placed into earth orbit.

Still, SpaceX had several Falcon 1 failures before they finally "got it
right". This stuff isn't easy.

Jeff
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