Blast off! Rocket Lab successfully reaches orbit

Rocket Lab has successfully launched its second rocket from Mahia, with the rocket reaching orbit for the first time.

This follows the company's first launch last May, in which the rocket got to space but did not make it to orbit after range safety officials had to kill the flight.

Rocket Lab earlier said it had pinpointed the problem that meant its first Electron rocket was killed before it got to orbit with the company saying at the time that it was confident the fault had been ironed out.

In its successful launch today, the company initially said it had reached stage separation, before tweeting the rocket had successfully made it to orbit.

There would be a third test launch - into Sun-synchronous orbit of between 300km and 500km above the Earth's surface - before the company could move into commercial missions.

A planned launch was scrapped yesterday after a "rogue" boat foiled plans.

The planned launch yesterday was put on hold less than a minute before scheduled lift-off.

"A rogue ship entered our launch-range area resulting us in having to go into a manually induced hold for the launch.

"This is of course for safety reasons as we can't have boats down range of the vehicle...we are going to be recycling the vehicle and getting ready for another attempt today," Rocket Lab's mission control in Auckland said.

The second Electron rocket - named Still Testing - will carry an Earth-imaging Dove satellite for Planet, and Lemur-2 satellites for Spire for weather mapping and tracking ship traffic.

Rocket Lab had attempted to launch Still Testing in December, but conditions did not allow for it.

The New Zealand-founded company aims to put small satellites into space at a fraction of the cost of established rivals.

THE ROCKET

• The Electron rocket weighs more than 12 tonnes at lift-off - about the same as a double decker bus

• Its nine Rutherford engines produce enough thrust to lift that from a standing start

• Power to weight, it is the most powerful machine in New Zealand

• It will take about three seconds to clear the four-storey launch tower

• It will climb to more than 10,600m feet in a minute

• Once past the thicker parts of the atmosphere it will reach 27,000km/h

• Stage 1 of Electron separates after two and a half minutes

• After just over eight minutes Electron reaches orbit about 500km above the earth

• At eight and a half minutes payload separates from the launch vehicle

• It can carry a payload of up to 225kg

• Once in commercial operation launches will cost customers about $7.16m.

• All loads are licenced by international and NZ space authorities