Rocket Lab has wrapped up wet dress rehearsal activities for the Electron vehicle ahead of its liftoff from a launch complex at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia.

Rocket Lab's first in-house built satellite launched into orbit Monday as part of its 14th Electron mission that took off from a launch complex in New Zealand and fielded a microsatellite for Capella Space.

The Federal Aviation Administration has given Rocket Lab permission to launch small satellites for government customers from a company-operated facility at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia. Rocket Lab said Tuesday it can use the Electron rocket to perform multiple smallsat missions  from  Launch Complex 2 with the FAA-issued operator license with five-year validity.

Michael Griffin, former undersecretary for research and engineering at the Department of Defense and two-time Wash100 Award recipient, has joined the board of directors at small satellite launch service provider Rocket Lab. He brings more than 35 years of federal government and space industry experience to Rocket Lab, the company said Wednesday.

Rocket Lab has updated its Electron launch vehicle that now enables it to carry up to 660 pounds of payload to low orbits and 441 pounds to sun-synchronous orbits or 310.1 miles.

The National Reconnaissance Office has awarded Rocket Lab a contract to send small satellites to orbit as part of two back-to-back missions in spring 2021.

Rocket Lab is scheduled to deploy seven small satellites on July 3, three weeks after sending five payloads into orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office, NASA and the Australian government.

Rocket Lab has launched satellites from NASA, the National Reconnaissance Office and the Australian government as part of a rideshare mission dubbed “Don’t Stop Me Now," C4ISRNET reported Sunday.

Rocket Lab's Electron launch vehicle is slated to send satellite payloads from NASA, the National Reconnaissance Office and the Australian government to orbit as part of the “Don’t Stop Me Now” mission in early June.

Peter Beck, founder and CEO of small satellite launch firm Rocket Lab, said the Department of Defense and other agencies could help the small launch sector by funding space programs that will drive demand for launch services, SpaceNews reported Monday.

Rocket Lab has handed over to Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport the Electron launch vehicle in preparation for a U.S. Space Force mission in the third quarter of the year.

Rocket Lab employed a test article to demonstrate a mid-air recovery maneuver for the Electron launch vehicle's first stage.

Rocket Lab has received Category 1 certification from NASA for its Electron launch vehicle. The certification was awarded after Rocket Lab’s Electron vehicle delivered 13 NASA CubeSats to orbit in December 2018 as part of the ELaNa-19 mission and following the completion of a review of the company’s rocket production processes and facilities in 2019, the company said Tuesday.

Rocket Lab will help two U.S. federal agencies and an Australian academia-based team launch and deploy small satellite payloads.

Capella Space and Rocket Lab entered into an agreement to launch a synthetic aperture radar satellite that will work to optimize the monitoring of key regions across the globe.