Star Trek's William Shatner opens Rocket Lab's new Auckland factory

Friday, 12 October 2018

Rocket Lab's Electron rocket makes it into orbit in January after lifting off from the Māhia Peninsula.

Space-launch firm Rocket Lab has opened a fancy new rocket factory in Auckland designed to build a new Electron rocket every week.

The 7500 sq m mass production site in Mount Wellington will add to Rocket Lab's existing production facility and headquarters in California.

Actor William Shatner - best known for his role as Captain Kirk in the Star Trek series, and also as Denny Crane in Boston Legal - officially opened the factory on Friday afternoon.

Rocket Lab plans to launch a new rocket every week.

Rocket Lab chief executive Peter Beck said the company had expanded its global production, to launch an Electron rocket to orbit every week by 2020.

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Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck says the rocket launching system will shoot off satellites into space.

'Every detail of the Rocket Lab launch system has been designed to provide small satellites with rapid and reliable access to space,' Beck said.

The launching service will allow satellites to be transported, used for apps like Uber or Google Maps.

Electron launch vehicles will undergo final assembly in Mount Wellington, where all parts will go through a streamlined process for testing and integration into the rocket before its launch from the Māhia Peninsula.

Electron is a two-stage rocket capable of delivering payloads of 150kg.

The huge 7500 square metre mass production site in Mount Wellington will add to Rocket Lab's existing production facility and headquarters in California.

Rocket Lab operates the world's only private orbital launch site, in Māhia Peninsula, which is licensed to launch up to 120 times per year.

All Electron launches, including an upcoming launch in November, will be commanded from the mission control in Auckland.

Mount Wellington will also control Rocket Lab's US launch site, which is undergoing final selection.

Rocket Lab will have about 200 staff of its staff at the factory and is hiring more staff to support its plans of monthly launches in 2019, scaling to weekly launches by the end of 2020.

In January Rocket Lab successfully reached orbit but months later caught flak for launching its 'humanity star', which drew criticism over space pollution and its non-research related purpose.

After just two months in space, the 'humanity star' that resembled a disco ball, fell back to Earth and burned up in the planet's atmosphere.

The company also had faced some delays in launching its Electron rocket and eventually abandoned its launch window.