Aerospace manufacturer and small satellite launch service provider Rocket Lab’s Electron has successfully deployed six spacecraft to orbit.

The 19th Electron mission, dubbed as ‘They Go Up So Fast,’ lifted off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula on 22 March.

Belonging to various government and commercial customers, the deployed satellites include an Earth-observation satellite for BlackSky Global through Spaceflight, two Internet of Things (IoT) nanosatellites by Australian commercial operators Fleet Space and Myriota, and a test satellite developed by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Canberra Space in partnership with the Royal Australian Air Force.

A weather-monitoring CubeSat for Care Weather Technologies, and US Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC) technology demonstrator were also deployed during this mission.

Rocket Lab’s in-house manufactured Photon spacecraft was also part of this mission.

Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck said: “Congratulations and welcome to orbit for all of our customers on Electron.

“Reaching more than 100 satellites deployed is an incredible achievement for our team and I’m proud of their tireless efforts, which have made Electron the second most frequently launched US rocket annually.

“Today’s mission was a flawless demonstration of how Electron has changed the way space is accessed. Not only did we deploy six customer satellites, but we also deployed our own pathfinding spacecraft to orbit in preparation for our Moon mission later this year.”

With this launch, Rocket Lab’s total number of satellites deployed to orbit has reached 104.