Kiwi rocket ready for take off

JOHN SELKIRK

READY FOR LIFT OFF: The rocket was designed by private company Rocket Lab, headed by former crown research scientist Peter Beck.

Kiwi rocket

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The rocket designed to launch New Zealand into the space race was unveiled today.

Called Manu Korere - which translates as bird messenger - the rocket was designed by private company Rocket Lab, headed by former crown research scientist Peter Beck, 32.

At six metres long and 150mm in diameter the rocket is designed for scientific sub-orbital 'sounding' missions.

It will travel to an altitude of 120 kilometres - space starts at 100 kilometres - then return to earth in a sub-orbital ballistic curve, to be recovered from a splashdown at sea.

It can carry a payload of just two kilograms, but that is more than enough for modern miniaturised scientific instruments, says Mr Beck.

Rocket Lab hopes to grab a slice of the lucrative space market, selling access to its rocket to send science equipment into space, testing things like climate change.

The rocket - officially an Atea-1 model -  is almost entirely constructed from lightweight carbon fibre composites. Components such as the rocket nozzle and combustion chamber are all manufactured from Rocket Lab- developed composite materials which are a fraction of the weight of traditional metal components.

The rocket generates the equivalent of 3200 horsepower from a rocket engine weighing just 13kg.

Launch day is planned for sometime in the week of November 30 from Great Mercury Island - owned by millionaire banker Sir Michael Fay.

"We gave Sir Michael a ring. He said fantastic. He's got right in behind the project," said Mr Beck.

The island and month is a fitting place for conducting this historic launch, as its namesake is derived 240 years ago from Captain James Cook's observation of the transit of Mercury in November of 1769.

For the past four months the test programme for the full-scale motor has been carried out in Air New Zealand's Auckland engineering base with the rocket motor secured to a test rig in the airline's jet engine test cell.

"It's an ideal facility, which has allowed us to control a lot of the variables and push ahead fast," says Mr Beck.

Air New Zealand Gas Turbines manager Richard Ison says Air New Zealand was happy to help the Rocket Lab pioneers.

"We can obviously identify with what they are doing - a small Kiwi company taking on the big established players, and having a fresh approach that simply blows right through the barriers of conventional thinking.

"And we're very happy to support a genuine environmental breakthrough. The emissions from this engine are non-toxic as opposed to the traditional launch platforms, so it would be great to see Rocket Lab winning a big share of this market."

The first Kiwi blast off will carry a payload that is partly yet to be determined - Rocket Lab is selling a 100gm space for sale on TradeMe - which currently has one bid at $3000. It closes on Sunday at 8pm.