If you would like to see more articles like this please support our coverage of the space program by becoming a Spaceflight Now Member. If everyone who enjoys our website helps fund it, we can expand and improve our coverage further. An Electron launcher lifts off Wednesday from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1A in New Zealand. Credit: Rocket Lab A mysterious small satellite built by the German company OHB, purported to be a pathfinder for a Chinese-owned communications constellation, took off from New Zealand Wednesday and soared into orbit on top of a Rocket Lab Electron launcher. The 59-foot-tall (18-meter) Electron rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 1A at Rocket Lab’s privately-owned base on the North Island of New Zealand at 2:26 a.m. EST (0726 GMT; 8:26 p.m. local time), following a nearly half-hour delay to wait for ground winds go come within limits.