Lots more to budget space rocket firm

I WATCH with interest the continuing progress of the budget space rocket company Rocket Lab (‘‘Kiwi rocket firm near moon shot’’, ODT, 23.1.16). I had been comforted to find New Zealand already has laws against the manufacture of weapons and so hoped Rocket Lab’s intended aim was not to access this massive industrial source of income.

However, viewing Rocket Lab’s website (rocketlabusa.com) and Wikipedia, I find that contrary to New Zealand media reports, Rocket Lab is not a New Zealand company. Rocket Lab boasts sponsorship from the Tindall Foundation and a large US military manufacturer. Already the taint of money made from the sale of equipment to kill human beings is upon Rocket Lab. The ODT now reports $25 million from the New Zealand Government. We could have had a media uproar lasting for months over that sum, a la flag design, without starting on the subject of government money going to foreign firms.

I had hoped the aim of Rocket Lab was to quietly install useful telecommunications satelites on the cheap, but with horror I read that it is involved in a plan to actually mine the moon.

I hope all New Zealand opposition parties will immediately propose legislation to outlaw any further New Zealand support for such a hateful plan as mining on the moon. It is bad enough to burn holes in the ozone layer with rocket trips for the idle rich, but to irreversibly wreck the surface of the moon is an idea most will find disgusting.

Robert Van Hale

Dunedin [This letter was referred to Rocket Lab for comment, but no response was received.]

To correspondent

Kath Kenrick: Thanks. Your comments are noted.