Small American rocket company Rocket Lab has made their first commercial space launch of the Electron rocket from a site in New Zealand. This one – unlike SpaceX’s Falcon series, it’s fully expendable – was nicknamed “It’s Business Time” and sent several small satellites into orbit, including a prototype “drag sail” for de-orbiting defunct satellites. Total payload of the Electron is only 500 pounds, and the dollars-per-pound is likely far higher than for the Falcon 9. But little rockets like this, if they are made and launched with sufficient numbers, should provide not only cheap-enough capability but also much faster turnaround time for cube- and nano-sats.
Neat to see it launching from New Zealand. But the future of space launch can’t be from there, as New Zealand is a “nuclear free zone.” No deep space probes with RTGs, no nuclear reactors of manned missions, no nuclear engines.