Rocket Lab USA Inc. blasted off for space for the first time since its September failure, in a key test of the company’s ability to challenge SpaceX’s dominant Falcon 9.

Rocket Lab’s midsize Electron rocket took off just after 5:06 p.m. local time from the company’s launch complex in Mahia, New Zealand, according to a livestream broadcast.

The mission carried one satellite from the Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, Inc. (iQPS), a Japanese company planning a constellation of 36 Earth observation satellites. Rocket Lab deployed the payload into orbit about an hour after liftoff, the company said.

The mission ends a three-month hiatus after the September loss of its Electron rocket and the payloads it was carrying shortly after liftoff.

With 10 launches this year, Rocket Lab is well behind the pace set by Space Exploration Technologies Corp., which has had about 90. Still, Long Beach, California-based Rocket Lab is the only other US provider actively launching rockets besides SpaceX, as other American and European rivals struggle to get long-delayed rockets off the ground.

Rocket Lab announced on Dec. 7 an agreement to launch in the first half of 2024 an Earth observation satellite for the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

The new year “is shaping up to be our busiest launch year yet with a fully booked manifest of Electron missions,” Rocket Lab Chief Executive Officer Peter Beck said in a statement.

Rocket Lab has 22 Electron launches lined up for 2024 and is working toward the initial flight of its bigger Neutron rocket, first announced in 2021.

The Neutron is designed to compete against SpaceX’s Falcon 9 as well as rockets from rivals such as United Launch Alliance LLC and Arianespace’s forthcoming Ariane 6.

Competitors “are all chasing SpaceX,” William Blair analyst Louie DiPalma wrote in a Dec. 8 report.

Shares of iQPS began trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Growth Market on Dec. 6 and the company has a market capitalization of about ?33 billion ($233 million).

Bloomberg

Rocket Lab’s Electron launched in Mahia, New Zealand, on Dec. 15.Source: Rocket Lab

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