Rocket Lab's first launch for 2021 lights up Napier night sky

And another one gone, and another one gone ... Another One Leaves the Crust has successfully taken off.

Rocket Lab's first launch mission for the year - a rocket named Another One Leaves the Crust - blasted off on Wednesday night about 8pm from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand's Māhia Peninsula.

A dedicated mission for European space technology company OHB Group, the launch deployed a single communication micro satellite, which will enable specific frequencies to support future services from orbit.

Graham Palmer, of the Maraekakaho Dark Sky Project, was one of several dozen viewers around the region who were disappointed when the original launch set down for January 16 was stood down.

Rocket Lab's first launch for the year, Another One Leaves the Crust, took off from Māhia on Wednesday night. Photo / Rocket Lab

However, Wednesday night's launch of the rocket seemed to make up for it.

Watching from home, he said he could see it with the "naked eye".

"It was the first time I was able to keep watching the rocket right up until the first stage [was completed]."

He said it was unfortunately too light to see the twilight phenomenon many had hoped to capture.

Another One Leaves the Crust painted a red arc across the sky as it departed which could be seen from Blucks Pit, Nuhaka. Photo / Rory Gannaway, Next Horizons Space Flight

Described as a "giant tadpole flying across the sky" by Palmer, the phenomenon occurs when particles from the rocket propellant left in the vapour trail condense, freeze and expand in the less dense upper atmosphere.

Against the background of a dark sky, and illuminated by the sun, the rocket's exhaust plume appears to change colours, putting on a display of blue and white lights in the sky.

Palmer said he was keeping his fingers crossed for more launches where he might be able to see the phenomenon.