ELaNa 19 Launch

A Rocket Lab Electron rocket’s nine first-stage Rutherford engines ignite as NASA’s Educational Launch of Nanosatellites-19 (ELaNa-19) payload lifts off at 6:33 a.m. UTC on Dec. 17 (1:33 p.m. EST on Dec. 16) from Launch Complex-1, located at Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand. The liftoff marks the first flight of a payload under NASA’s Venture Class Launch Services (VCLS). Managed by NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, VCLS was developed to provide increased access to space specifically for these small spacecraft, called CubeSats.