A satellite the size of a microwave oven successfully broke free from its orbit around Earth and is headed toward the moon.

Using a helicopter to catch a falling rocket is such a complex task that Peter Beck likens it to a “supersonic ballet.”.

New Zealand has become the latest country to sign a space agreement with U.S. space agency NASA, just as New Zealand’s nascent space industry begins to take off.

Rocket Lab, a California-based private company, is currently launching its small class Electron rocket from New Zealand and soon, Virginia. Rocket Lab plans to adapt the spacecraft to send a series of private robotic missions to Venus beginning in 2023. AdRocket Lab CEO Peter Beck and Neutron (Rocket Lab 2021)“It’s about time I finally ate the hat,” he said, placing a Rocket Lab baseball cap in a blending machine and then putting the blended up pieces in a martini glass. After more than 3 years of delivering reliable access to orbit, Rocket Lab is planning to go public on the @Nasdaq. https://t.co/aPe9PboexG pic.twitter.com/i7lY250mBT — Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) March 1, 2021“One thing that’s probably more exciting and most unusual for Rocket Lab is that this vehicle is capable of human spaceflight,” Beck said.

AdIt used to be -- in the U.S.-- NASA was the only way to fund and send a robotic mission to another world, but not anymore. The company wants to send the first robotic mission to Venus in 2023. (Image credit: Rocket Lab) (Rocket Lab)Meanwhile, NASA is considering funding its own missions to the planet considered Earth’s twin. Currently there are two Venus missions under consideration and two more equally fascinating missions, one designed to study Jupiter’s moon Io and another to Neptune’s moon Triton. AdHere’s what launching a robotic mission to another planet looks like, in a nutshell, according to Wagner:“This is what a typical NASA mission is.

Private space company, Rocket Lab has had plans in the works to launch a spacecraft to Venus on its Electron rocket as soon as 2023. The announcement this week added to the excitement of a mission to the second planet from the sun coming up in the near future. So from a from a climate perspective, I think we have a lot to learn from Venus,” Beck said. “Don’t get me wrong, I like Mars to just not as much as Venus,” Beck said. Rocket Lab is known for its quirky mission names but Beck says they have still not decided to on a name for the mission to Venus.

California-based space startup Rocket Lab will resume launching its Electron rockets from New Zealand this month four weeks after the company experienced its first launch failure. Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said in a call with reporters Friday the Federal Aviation Administration approved the company to resume launches after an FAA-supported investigation identified the cause of the July 4 launch failure from Mahia, New Zealand. Electron had 12 previous successful launches from New Zealand prior to the 13th doomed launch. After duplicating the issue, Beck said the team was about to mitigate the problem through a slight change in its production process. Rocket Lab did not announce when in August the company plans to launch again or with what payload.