A new semester has kicked off, and I am teaching my half of “An Introduction to Rocket Science”, a new(ish) course at the University of Auckland (ASTRO 110, check it out).
It’s about rocket science in the broad sense. On the one hand, human activity in space is governed by the iron laws of physics – home ground for me. But it is equally shaped by political and economic imperatives.
So putting the course together has been a fascinating journey. Know, for example, how military rockets made their way to Europe? Iron rockets were used by the army of Mysore to such great effect against the British in India that the British copied them, developing them into Congreve rockets. These provided the “rockets’ red glare” of the US national anthem and they were subsequently deployed here in Aotearoa New Zealand against the legendary Hone Heke. (Who was largely unbothered by them.)
In my first lecture, I wanted to set the scene with a lightning review of the “space race”, and opened with a clip of John F. Kennedy’s “We Choose to Go To the Moon” speech. I felt the need to check that my audience, most of whom were born this century, knew who Kennedy was – whereas I remember the very last of the moon landings.
Reminders of your age (relative to your students) are an occupational hazard for professors. However, it also underlined the extent to which until very recently “space” mostly happened somewhere other than New Zealand. For today’s students, however, Rocket Lab has changed that. One of its achievements is to exist simultaneously as a Kiwi and an American enterprise but it launches from Mahia and builds rockets here in Auckland.
Surprisingly, I keep meeting New Zealanders who are only vaguely aware of just how singular an achievement this is. My students are – that’s why most of them signed up for this class. But even many of them did not know that our small country is Number 3 in the global league table for orbital launches in 2025.
They did know after I showed them this plot, though.1
We are beaten by the United States and China, but not by anyone else.
The truly surprising revelation, though, is what happens when you deploy that Kiwi standard from every Olympics – the ‘per capita’ plot. By this measure, we truly stand alone
As a physicist, it can sometimes feel that my field gets slightly short shift in a country whose agricultural exports are often seen as our defining characteristic. But rockets run on physics, so the success of our space sector is particularly sweet music to my ears.
Better still, Rocket Lab may not be a one-off; Dawn Aerospace is testing an un-crewed vehicle that will fly to the edge of space. Dawn would likely get more attention from our media if it was not sharing a small country with a company that would be a big deal in whichever country it made its home. That said, Dawn is clearly going for a “slow and steady” approach. It cannily supports itself by building thrusters for satellites and this revenue stream gives it more breathing room than start-ups that go all-in on developing a single product.
In New Zealand our current government has made it clear that it values only science with immediate economic returns. Conversely, Kennedy says very little about the financial benefits of space exploration in his speech, but focuses on its capacity to inspire. In fact, at one point he asks “Why climb the highest mountain?” and almost any New Zealander will spot the reference to Hillary, who had summited Everest less than a decade earlier.
Between political instability, economic constraints and climate uncertainty this not an easy time to be a young person. I am far from an uncritical enthusiast when it comes to space activity, but Kennedy recognised that space, like mountains, has a hold on the human imagination that transcends balance sheets.
Consequently, it is worth pausing to appreciate the extent to which New Zealand and New Zealanders have achieved something remarkable in this arena. And I am looking forward to seeing what we – and my students – will do next.
- The data comes from the excellent Jonathan’s Space Report, a superb resource for anyone looking for facts and figures on space activity. The plots count successful launches as opposed to launches and for most countries the number is not wildly different. However a German company failed on its first attempt to get to space in March, costing it a place in the list. ↩︎
Depends on the metric, though, right? Rocket Lab put 4.5 tonnes into orbit in 2024, USA 2200 tonnes. Not to diminish RL’s engineering achievement, but it has been argued that small rocket => high cost/kg => incentive to seek military design/build contracts.
I wonder if you have read Daniel Deudney’s Dark Skies: Space Expansionism, Planetary Geopolitics, and the Ends of Humanity (2020). His thesis is that space is and always has been almost entirely military. It would be interesting to dig down and see how that has changed in the new space race.
https://blog.planetaryecology.org/2022/10/27/new-zealand-in-space-all-the-universe-or-nothing/
I haven’t read it, although this tension it is part of the paradox of any technological development. On the face of it though, the claim that space is “almost entirely” military strikes me as one that would be hard to sustain — or applies with equal force to many developments, back to and including our ability to make iron. Weather forecasting and GPS navigation services impact most of our lives on a daily basis, and our ability to manage climate itself is transformed by the use of space-based assets. Likewise, I am no fan of Musk (and, as an astronomer, the visual pollution of the night sky by constellations like Starlink is a real concern) but in a world where internet connectivity is key to engage with a huge part of our broader culture something like Starlink is life-changing for many rural families and businesses, given its ability to outrun current alternatives.