John Holt on Tawhaki’s ambitions in the space launch market<\/p>\n
Large rockets weighing up to 100 tonnes each could be launched a dozen times a year from a planned national aerospace centre near Christchurch.<\/p>\n
T\u0101whaki and a French company are now working on getting capital, consents and customers from Europe to build the spaceport.<\/p>\n
The few details of the attempt to tap the burgeoning world of the space launch market have been released to RNZ.<\/p>\n
“Launch facility to cater for up to 100-tonne launch vehicles, with an initial consent for up to 12 launches per year,” said an executive summary.<\/p>\n
Rocket Lab currently launches 13-tonne Electron rockets from Mahia, although it is working on a new Neutron rocket that would be heavier than 100 tonne and launch from the US, while SpaceX launches rockets that carry up to 500 tonnes.<\/p>\n
A summary of the spaceport plan features a 30m by 30m rocket pad being built to NASA standards, about 10 kilometres from State Highway 75 beside Lake Ellesmere Te Waihora.<\/p>\n
It lists five possible rocket fuels – all of them gas – and not the more environmentally-damaging solid rocket fuels.<\/p>\n
A southern hemisphere launch gives private or government or scientific missions greater options into the various orbits, of which low-earth orbit (LEO) is particularly sought-after for the likes of Starlink and other communications satellites, and US military constellations planned to support the Golden Dome.<\/p>\n
Many more thousands of satellites are expected to go into LEO in coming years – Musk already has about 10,000.<\/p>\n
The summary said T\u0101whaki and France’s SpaceDreamS now needed to develop a collaboration agreement, secure capital for building and consents, and discuss regulations with the National Space Agency, which is part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and employment.<\/p>\n
The key questions to discuss were around the role of the state – many of the current attempts in various countries to build spaceports have substantial government backing – liability and which launch companies might sign up.<\/p>\n
“Collaboration between values-aligned organisations” was a guideline.<\/p>\n
T\u0101whaki has said it would be okay with launching NZ Defence Force spacecraft, but dual-use military-civilian launches by offshore customers would face more questions<\/a>.<\/p>\n The partners have been marketing the spaceport in Europe and the US as a “strategically unique launch capability” with “an exceptionally clear launch range” and “access to a wide range of azimuths and inclinations”.<\/p>\n T\u0101whaki – an iwi-Crown joint venture set up with $35m taxpayer funding – has a runway and hangar at Kaitorete Spit, and benefits from special regulations to carry out tests of the likes of high-altitude unmanned surveillance planes in its airspace.<\/p>\n The centre hooked up with SpaceDreamS at an international aerospace congress in Sydney last year. The French visited the spit and signed a memorandum of understanding “to investigate the feasibility of a collaborative spaceport”.<\/p>\n The summary said the firm had staff who used to work for French commercial launch provider Ariane Space and had “access to European launch operators and funded programmes”.<\/p>\n