A feature by Lisa Bradley on Kiwi-based aerospace company Rocket Lab, which aims to make history on November 30 by launching the first privately constructed rocket from the southern hemisphere.
Internet entrepreneur Mark Rocket, and award-winning Auckland scientist and engineer Peter Beck, dreamed up the space-race venture when they met three years ago.
An excerpt: read in full here
“”New Zealand is the ideal place to set up a space industry because it can be done more cheaply, [Beck] says. And there is scope for space science in the southern hemisphere in areas such as climate change measurement, micro gravity and solar physics.
“The launch is planned for 6am on November 30, weather permitting. The flight is expected to take around 30 minutes before the rocket arcs back to Earth and lands in the Pacific Ocean, where it will be retrieved.”