Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:28p.m.
The countdown is on to the historic New Zealand launch of a space-bound rocket from Great Mercury Island.
The launch by New Zealand aerospace company Rocket Lab of Atea-1 from the private island, off the Coromandel Peninsula, will be the first time in the southern hemisphere a privately owned company has launched a rocket to space.
Rocket Lab is aiming for liftoff during the week beginning November 30, although the actual launch date will be weather dependent.
The company 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.
"This is the first step in a long journey," Mr Rocket added.
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.
There is still lots of logistics work to do before launch date, including final assembly checks and dry runs so nothing is left to chance.
Rocket Lab is holding online auctions both for premium viewing spots on the island and for payload space on the rocket.
Chief executive Peter Beck said Atea-1, had a 2kg payload capacity and had already had interest from commercial parties keen to send products or services into space, or people wanting to send personal mementos. "We have 100g space left on the rocket so we decided to offer it to anybody who wanted to send something up into space," Mr Rocket said.
"We're pretty relaxed about what they send, within certain guidelines.
"It could be a photo, wedding rings, DNA, and a lot of people are following the auction online,"
The rocket will also be taking up a flashdrive of 22,000 messages to the stars from Texas-based company Space Services Inc.
Mr Beck said 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.
He said he was feeling a mixture of anticipation and nervousness ahead of the launch.
"It's the fruition of a long quest for myself and the Rocket Lab team to get to today.
"Personally, I've been working on this for nearly a decade and a half, so it's a significant investment in time," Mr Beck said.
The rocket has been designed to travel for three minutes in space, and the round trip is just half an hour.
About 15 seconds after launch, the rocket will travel at five times the speed of sound.
"That sounds like a short amount of time in space, but you can actually get a tremendous amount of science done in three minutes," Mr Beck said.
"We have quite sophisticated flight computers onboard and we're communicating with constellation satellites all the time so we know where the rocket is at all times.
The launch will be the first in a series where the primary payload will be instrumentation measuring the machine's performance.
The small rocket will use a new low-emission hybrid fuel technology.
It will travel at Mach 5 to an altitude of 120km - 20km on from where space starts - then return to Earth in a sub-orbital ballistic arc, to be recovered from the sea.
The cost of the project has been mainly met through private investment from Rocket Lab, although it has received some funding from the Government and a number of agencies around New Zealand.
NZPA