Final milestone complete before lift-off from Northern Hawke's Bay

Blast-off from Northern Hawke's Bay is now in sight, after Rocket Lab completed their last milestone before launch.

The Auckland-based company today announced the first stage booster of their Electron launch vehicle had completed flight qualification and acceptance. This marked the final major technical milestone before their first test launch scheduled for early next year.

When Electron blasts off next year, it will be from the world's first private orbital launch located on Mahia Peninsula, near Wairoa.

The completion of this milestone marks another achievement in what had been a "hugely successful year" for the company.

Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said this year they had achieved the qualification of all major vehicle systems, completion of Launch Complex 1 at Onenui Station, and had considerable growth of their team and customer base.

"We will continue to test the vehicle extensively in the lead-up to commercial operations and are looking forward to beginning the test flight programme," he said.

"Our focus with the Electron has been to develop a reliable launch vehicle that can be manufactured in high volumes - our ultimate goal is to make space accessible by providing an unprecedented frequency of launch opportunities."

Earlier this year the company hoped test flights would commence before the end of the year, with commercial flights beginning early to mid-2017.

However Mr Beck stated they now planned to begin full vehicle testing early next year once international launch licensing was complete.

This would also minimise disruption to those in Mahia over the summer.

"Mahia township experiences a considerable population spike through the summer and, in order to minimise any disruptions to local residents and visitors, our preference is to conduct the first test launch after the holidays," he said.

The 17m Electron vehicle is designed to deliver a 150 kg payload to a 500km sun-synchronous orbit - the target range for the high-growth constellation-satellite market.

Dedicated launches of the two-stage vehicle are priced from USD$4.9 million, making it one of the most affordable small satellite launch vehicle. Customers already signed to fly include NASA, Planet, Spire and Moon Express.