Rocket launched in New Zealand deploys commercial satellites
Wellington, Jan 22 (AP) A rocket launched from NewZealand has successfully reached orbit carrying smallcommercial satellites.
California-based company Rocket Lab said its Electronrocket, which carries only a small payload of about 150kilogrammes, successfully deployed an earth imaging and twoother satellites for weather and ship tracking after blastofffrom the Mahia Peninsula on North Island's east coast.
Company CEO and founder Peter Beck, a New Zealander, saidthe launch marks the beginning of a new era in commercialaccess to space. He said that deploying customer payloads on asecond test flight "is almost unprecedented."The company last May reached space with its first testlaunch, only to abort the mission due to a communicationglitch. It has official approval to conduct three testlaunches and sees an emerging market in delivering smalldevices, some as big as a smartphone, into orbit.
The satellites would be used for everything frommonitoring crops to providing internet service. (AP)AJR.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.