WELLINGTON, May 25 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand saw Thursday history-making as an Electron rocket was launched successfully from a private launch site on its territory, making it the 11th country to launch into space.
RocketLab, an American-New Zealand aerospace company, "broke new ground today" when its rocket Electron reached space at 16:23 NZST (0423 GMT), said the company release.
Electron lifted off from New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula. It was the first orbital-class rocket launched from a private launch site in the world, the release said.
Peter Beck, CEO and founder of Rocket Lab, said: "We're one of a few companies to ever develop a rocket from scratch and we did it in under four years. We've worked tirelessly to get to this point. We've developed everything in house, built the world's first private orbital launch range, and we've done it with a small team."
"It was a great flight. We had a great first stage burn, stage separation, second stage ignition and fairing separation. We didn't quite reach orbit and we'll be investigating why, however reaching space in our first test puts us in an incredibly strong position to accelerate the commercial phase of our program, deliver our customers to orbit and make space open for business," said Beck.
Over the coming weeks, Rocket Lab's engineers in Los Angeles and Auckland will work through the 25,000 data channels that were collected, and the results will inform measures taken to optimize the vehicle, he said.
"We have learned so much through this test launch and will learn even more in the weeks to come. We're committed to making space accessible and this is a phenomenal milestone in that journey," he said, adding that known applications from space industry include improved weather reporting, the Internet from space, natural disaster prediction, up-to-date maritime data as well as search and rescue services.
Thursday's launch was the first of three test flights scheduled for this year. Rocket Lab will target getting to orbit on the second test and look to maximize the payload the rocket can carry, said Beck.
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, according to the company.
In comparison, there were 22 launches last year from the United States, and 82 internationally.
