Rocket Labs have successfully sent their Electron rocket into orbit from their launch facility on Mahia penisula.
This is their second launch: the first failed to reach orbit.

dv said:

Rocket Labs have successfully sent their Electron rocket into orbit from their launch facility on Mahia penisula.
This is their second launch: the first failed to reach orbit.

> the rocket was carrying real payloads for real customers: three small satellites, one for a company that images Earth and two for one that monitors weather and ship traffic. But why on Earth would a satellite company choose a rocket-in-progress when there are so many reliable launchers out there? After all, even established rockets blow up sometimes.

(I would say – cost)

> smallsats are by nature expendable. In the next decade, an estimated 3,483 small satellites (between 1 and 100 kilograms) will go to space, generating just over $2 billion of launch revenue

That’s an average of $570,000 each. Yuk, still too expensive. Note that this is not what Rocket Labs is charging.

Every rocket launch, large or small, changes earth’s solar orbital path and it’s axial spin.
This anthropogenic activity could have climatic consequences.
An international conference at The Hague to discuss a launch moratorium is called for.

For launches – it’s a good thing that New Zealand is so near the equator.

Just kidding, when the orbit is polar, sun-seeking, or otherwise non-equatorial, it doesn’t matter too much to have a launch site further from the equator. And the higher the launch site – the less atmosphere the rocket has to climb through. New Guinea would be ideal.

mollwollfumble said:

For launches – it’s a good thing that New Zealand is so near the equator.

Just kidding, when the orbit is polar, sun-seeking, or otherwise non-equatorial, it doesn’t matter too much to have a launch site further from the equator. And the higher the launch site – the less atmosphere the rocket has to climb through. New Guinea would be ideal.

Cape York would be good.