Thousands add messages to Kiwi rocket ahead of blast off

By Simon Shepherd

The countdown is in progress. In just four days New Zealand’s first commercial space rocket is set to blast off on its maiden test flight.

While it is designed to carry mostly scientific payloads, it will also transport a rather odd collection of memorabilia and messages.

Suzanna Lizamore probably never dreamed of going to space, yet that's exactly where granddaughter Claire is sending her.

Grandma's photo will be on the side of the Atea-1 rocket, travelling straight up.

Also onboard - a memory stick from the kiwimaps company, with a copy of its entire database worth $4 million.

The rocket will also carry a USB stick with 22,000 messages on it from Texan company space services.

A sample of the type of messages:

‘You are the sweetest, cutest thing in the universe’ and ‘Know that wherever you go, Daddy's guiding light will be there to lead you.’

It's all part of a ‘name a star package’ that costs about $27. But it doesn’t change the star's scientific name.

It may not be official but it's common practice to name or adopt a star, as Grant Christie from the Auckland Stardome explained.

“Some people get a kick out of the fact that name has been out to space or something like and people send their names to Mars. NASA has sent discs with people names to Mars.”

If successful, Atea1's messages will come back to earth, and a Kiwi space industry will have taken off.