US billionaire launching gnome into space from NZ

Rocket Lab says its 16th mission will take off from Mahia carrying a 3D-printed figurine called“gnome Chompski”— a character familiar to players of Valve’s videogamehalfLife.

Valve founder Gabe Newell says he’ll be donating $1 to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Starship children’s hospital for every person whowatches the launch online at www.rocketlabusa.com/live-stream.

Atwo-weekwindow for the launch — Rocket Lab’s 16th, and sixth this year— will open onnovember 15.

Newellbecame stranded innew Zealand during a 10-day holiday that ran into themarch lockdown, then decided to stay on. The divorced, 57-year-old father of two says he can get just asmuchdone working remotely fromnz than remotely from hishomein Seattle (where he became amulti-millionaire at Microsoft).

Valve develops its ownvideo games, and sells titles from allcomers through its

Steam online store, which has become the dominant online platform for distributing gaming content inthe post-disc age.

Forbes estimates Newell’s wealth at US$4 billion ($5.7b). So he canwell afford a folly such as sending“gnome Chompski” into space.

Butwhile the gnome-alone might recallsomeof Rocket Lab’s less scientific efforts, such as founder Peter Beck’s disco-ball satellite or its artificial shooting stars to entertain the mega-rich effort, in this case there doesseem to be adegree of utility.

Rocket Lab says, “Manufactured with support from multi-awardwinning design studio Weta Workshop, the unique space component is additively manufactured from titanium and printed in the shape of Half-life

gaming icongnomechompski.

The mission serves as anhomage to the innovation and creativity of gamers worldwide, and also aims to test and qualify anovel 3D-printing technique that could be employed for future spacecraft components.