Following successful first and second stage burns, Electron reached orbit and deployed customer payloads at 8 minutes and 31 seconds after lift-off.

* Rocket Labs is targeting US$4.9 million or less per launch
* Rocket Labs is scheduled to launch the Moon Express Xprize lunar rover later this year
* Rocket Labs 3D prints their rockets
* Rocket Labs is launching 150 kilogram payloads

"Today marks the beginning of a new era in commercial access to space. We're thrilled to reach this milestone so quickly after our first test launch," says Rocket Lab CEO and founder Peter Beck. "Our incredibly dedicated and talented team have worked tirelessly to develop, build and launch Electron. I'm immensely proud of what they have achieved today."

"Reaching orbit on a second test flight is significant on its own, but successfully deploying customer payloads so early in a new rocket program is almost unprecedented. Rocket Lab was founded on the principal of opening access to space to better understand our planet and improve life on it. Today we took a significant step towards that," he says.