The launch site for the Electron rocket at Rocket Lab in Mahia, New Zealand in June 16, 2018. Photo: Kieran Fanning / Rocket Lab / AFP
Launches into outer space from New Zealand face a hurdle from the lack of official expertise to run safety assessments.
A further hurdle is that the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) is not a customer, said the Space Agency in its briefing to the new - and country's first - Space Minister Judith Collins on Thursday.
The government wants to cut red tape to speed up rocket launches and expand the aerospace industry to $10 billion by 2030.
So far the firm Rocket Lab holds the country's only launch licence.
The briefing said the agency, within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), lacked in-house expertise to issue others.
This is one of a number of briefings to incoming ministers released on Thursday. Read more:
- Read the briefing to the climate minister here
- Read the briefing to the transport minister here
- Read the education briefing
- Read the briefing to the foreign affairs minister
- Read the briefing from the National Emergency Management Agency
- Read the briefing from police
- Read the immigration briefing here
"The safety assessments required to issue launch and some high-altitude licences are more complex and resource intensive, requiring highly specialised expertise and capabilities that MBIE does not have," it said.
It was not worth employing experts itself for the few applications it expected for launches, so instead was setting up a system to tap external experts.
The agency could look at ways to lighten the rules that apply within the two new dedicated testing zones the government wants set up - in addition to Mahia and Tāwhaki/Kaitorete - but the zones could not simply be exempted from safety licensing.
"We can explore ways to reduce practical burdens on parties testing in these zones, eg support for developing multi-user safety and security plans for a facility licence."
Space Minister Judith Collins. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Going further would require law changes, it said.
The agency would work on inviting landowners to set up the test zones, name them in legislation to give certainty and set minimum standards for environmental protection at "a level that is appropriate for testing and minimises compliance".
The briefing notes the NZDF has no space assets in orbit, a contrast with its Australian counterpart that is putting $7.5b into space over the next decade.
"Growing the sector here to $10b per annum by 2030 will be challenging in the absence of a dedicated space programme (a national space science and exploration programme), sovereign space missions, and the... NZDF as a customer for domestic space companies.
"Such government use of space is often a cornerstone of downstream market demand overseas."
It outlined measures underway to attract space talent from overseas, including a global growth tech visa for people who have worked at a top tech firm and earned at least $400,000 a year.