Reader launches a rocket

The public deserve more critical analysis of the activities of Rocket Lab than the type of PR spin we saw from Chelsea Robinson, Tristan O’Hanlon and Daniel Mackisack (Waikato Times, July 20, 2022).

Ms Robinson, as co-founder of Generation Zero, should know better, but then her other main interest is sustainable human settlement on the moon. So there is a fundamental and inexplicable contradiction in her world view to start with.

With rocket launches happening more frequently around the planet, about once a week, concern is growing for the harm caused to the atmosphere. Recent research has shown that one typical rocket launch, SpaceX Falcon 9, burning a refined version of kerosene similar to jet fuel, emits carbon dioxide equivalent to 26 cubic kilometres of ambient atmosphere as it climbs one kilometre into the mesosphere. There is also heat and pressure from the exhaust plume which can heat the atmosphere directly, possibly affecting ozone, and producing nitrogen oxides, pollutants that are harmful to human health.

It should be noted that Rocket Lab’s Electron rockets use a ‘big propellant’, the composition of which is a trade secret. But Rocket Lab’s own website once stated that one of their launches produces as much CO2 as a jet airliner flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

And while it is generally accepted that greenhouse gas emissions from rocket launches is less than from other sources, scientists are concerned that particulate emissions from rockets could have important impacts on climate and ozone. Rocket engines emit much larger amounts of black carbon, for example, than jet aircraft engines. And with the number of launches growing at an average rate of about 8% per year for the past decade, rocket emissions have also been growing, faster than emission from other sources, such as aviation. And this growth is accelerating.

Defenders will point to Rocket Lab’s MethaneSAT program, supported by the Government to the tune of $26 million, and designed to monitor methane emissions from the oil and gas industries. It seems clear, however, that a thorough discussion needs to be had as to the value of a greenhouse gas monitoring program that may be adding more greenhouse gases than it is monitoring.

The other big concern, and one we are getting almost zero discussion of in the media, is the militarisation of space. Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s founder, has claimed that the payloads on his rockets are for research only and not for military use. This is disingenuous when their main client, BlackSky, is a US company holding special contracts with NASA (for the use of satellite imaging data) as well as US military clients, particularly the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).

The NRO manages the Tactical Defense Space Reconnaissance (TacDSR) Program that includes two acquisition programs – Military Exploitation of Reconnaissance and Intelligence Technology (MERIT) and Combat Systems Integration (CSI). It supplies ‘‘warfighting intelligence requirements of the Combatant Commands, Services, and other tactical users as funded by the Department of Defense Military Intelligence Program.’’ In short, the NRO uses satellites owned by companies it has contracts with – like BlackSky – to direct combat operations.

Noam Chomsky has outlined the bleak history of the United States and its relationship to the militarisation of space. It has continually blocked or abstained from UN General Assembly resolutions to prevent an arms race in outer space or to limit placement of weapons in outer space.

Our Government, via the New Zealand Space Agency based in MBIE, continues to sign off launches for US military technology, that has effectively established a permanent US military base at Mahia.

Given the media coverage of Rocket Lab, and the elevation of Peter Beck as some sort of self-made business guru, the public is not being as informed on this issue as it should be. And please can we refrain from comparisons to our indigenous Pacific explorers contemplating the stars.

The accelerated pollution of our atmosphere and the militarisation of space have nothing to do with that type of romantic myth-making.

Paul Judge, Hamilton