The launch company, Rocket Lab Ltd, started up three years ago with the aim to develop a series of Atea rockets that would make space more accessible, company director Mark Rocket said last week. "This is the first step in a long journey," he said.
The 6-metre-long craft should reach speeds of up to Mach 5, flying 120km into the air, before splashing down in the sea, where it will be picked up. This is the first time in the southern hemisphere a privately owned company has launched a rocket to space. Atea is the Maori word for "space" as the team wanted an indigenous name for the rockets. The first rocket Atea-1 has been named Manu Karere by the local Thames iwi, which means Bird Messenger.
A technical hitch during morning delayed the original launch time of 7.10 a.m. by eight hours. There was understood to have been a problem with nitrous oxide causing a coupling to freeze. The cost of the project has been met mainly through private investment from Rocket Lab, although it has received some funding from the Government and a number of agencies around New Zealand. Rocket Lab chief executive Peter Beck said Atea-1 had a 2kg payload capacity. The project would give the global scientific community the first practical alternative to conventional rockets at significantly lower cost, as it could carry miniature scientific equipment. (Source: NZHerald.co.nz
However, That Was Then And This Is Now . . .
NZ Rocket's GPS Battery Dies
The battery powering a lost New Zealand rocket's connection to its tracking satellite died about 2pm today, its owner says. A fisherman yesterday found the first stage booster from Atea-1, the first rocket from New Zealand aerospace company Rocket Lab, which was launched from Great Mercury Island off the Coromandel Peninsula on Monday afternoon.
But the 2kg payload and the flight computer, both of which could have valuable data about the flight, has yet to be recovered.
"It's a 1.8m rocket that's bobbing about in the ocean there and about 300mm to 400mm will be sticking out the top with a silver nose cone," company director Mark Rocket told NZPA.
Mr Rocket did not expect the rocket would be particularly dangerous to touch and urged anyone who found it to pop it in their boat.
"So I think if anybody's going to be in the vicinity in a boat they will spot it."
The search area was over 100sq km and was not practical to mount a grid-style search, Mr Rocket said.
"The rest of the rocket is cunningly disguised in black."
The company's rocket builders would be changing their recovery systems for their next launch, he said.
"The main thing that we were totally focussed on was to get the rocket to reach altitude and the recovery system was something we didn't have as much time to spend on as we would have liked, but we'll certainly be focussing on that for the next version of Atea-1."
The team was going to study the sea currents to see where it might wash up.
Mr Rocket did not expect the rocket would be particularly dangerous to touch and urged anyone who found it to pop it in their boat.
"Obviously you're going to have to be very careful handling it because it is a rocket and you don't want to just chuck it in the back.
by Staff Writers Auckland NZ (NZPA) Dec 03, 2009