Morgan Connaughton: Rocket Lab vice-president of communications on New Zealand's rocket launch cap being increased

Government regulations and the sky aren't the limit for Rocket Lab, with the rocket launch cap multiplied by 10 to 1000.

A review of space-launch-debris-regulations judged the environmental risk to be low.

New Zealand comes third in the world - for frequency of orbital rocket launches.

Rocket Lab's vice-president of communications, Morgan Connaughton says this bump is needed.

She says Rocket Lab's already reached 81 launches.

"Back when Rocket Lab started launching, 100 seemed like a fantasy. And then here we are, not all that much longer later, and our team is planning celebrations for the 100th launch already." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So we've got a boost for our rapidly expanding space sector.
The number of allowed launchers from New Zealand into space
is being increased. It's going to rise from a limit
of one hundred to a limit of one thousand.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Now.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Rocket Lab's vice president of Communications is raw As Morgan
Conaton Morgan, Hello, Hello, what proportion of these do you reckon?
You will use?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Oh? I would say right now, rocket Lab is the
only orbital launch provider in New Zealand, So if we're
being greedy, I'd love to take them all. But let's
be candid here. I mean, we really do want to
see New Zealand space industry grow overall. There are another
number of other companies trying to do the same thing,
and we're cheering them on as well. But I think
what's really important is that the government has enabled this

(00:43):
flourishing community, whether it's Rocket Lab or Beyond. And you know,
if you can't, if you've been limited by how many
launchers you can do, then there really is a limit
to the sky as the limit. And now that's kind
of just been lifted for everybody. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
The reason I'm asking is because you did twenty one
last year, so it would have. If you're just looking
at that, I mean, you're not even touching You're not
even close to touching the limit, the previous limit of
one hundred. So I was just assuming that there must
must be other players coming into lifted to a thousand.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Well it was twenty one last year, but it's eighty
one overall now, so we're getting pretty close to that
hundred limit overall, just rocket Lab and INVA is this.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
This is not an annual limit. This is a forever limit.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Not an annual this is a total limit.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Why do we even have a limit?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Well, I suppose it's about monitoring, you know, the impact
of space launch on the nation, on the environment, kind
of what we can support from a regulatory standpoint. You know,
it does make sense to assess any new industry as
it comes along to see what kind of volumes can
the system overall support. And back when rocket Lab started launching,
you know, one hundred seemed like a fantasy that maybe

(01:48):
one day, in our wild the streams, we might reach
one hundred, And then here we are, not all that
much longer later, and you know, our team is planning
celebrations for the hundred's launch already.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Well Okay, now who would you put a permanently be
doing it for?

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Who do we launch for YSH, Well, there's not a
lot of customers globally. NASA is a significant one, so
we've launched a mission to the Moon for them. We
relatively recently launched a mission over the Poles to help
track ice smell f over are the Arctic and Antarctic.
So there's a lot of environmental research, a lot of
scientific exploration throughout the Solar system, so that's certainly one market.

(02:25):
We do a lot of commercial constellations, so a lot
of organizations that are doing perhaps Earth's observation syntheta capiture
radar and really that just those are constellations to look
down on Earth and provide all manner of data, whether
it be on shipping traffic, whether it be intelligence, whether
it be disaster relief. So a lot of commercial constellations,

(02:46):
and then of course we have the national security market
as well, so we do a fair amount of intelligence work.
So it's kind of really really split.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, I imagine it's one of these things that rapidly escalates,
like you do one, you do two, suddenly you're doing fourteen,
then twenty one, then eighty blah blah blah. It just
keeps going up really rapidly. Is that would I be right?

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Absolutely?

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yes, absolutely? Okay, Now, what's going on with the engines,
because I see some of the engines are blowing up
and it's causing some some online chatter.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Oh and during an engine test campaign, the engines are
mean to blow up. That's how you test their limits.
That's how you make sure that they don't do that
thing in flight. It's just PAF the course and part
of designing a new launch vehicle. So yeah, gosh, we
are far from the first company to have, you know,
exploded a launch vehicle engine and testing. We've done it
with all of our previous engines. It's just part of
successfully bolding a rocket that works in flight.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Well, good stuff and best of luck with everything, Morgan.
Good to talk to you, Morgan Connor and Rocket Lab
vice president of Communication. For more from Heather dupless Yellen Drive,
listen live to news Talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,
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