New Zealand, we have lift off.
In a pillar of smoke and the flash of flame from its 3D printed engines, Peter Beck's 5-storey high Electron rocket lifted off yesterday, carrying with it the country's hopes for an aerospace industry.
It made it through every stage but the very last one.
Rocket Lab's now investigating why it did not quite make it to orbit.
Regardless, the firm's founder and chief engineer, from a family of Invercargill engineers, Peter Beck, was celebrating later with a beer partly brewed in space.
