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| Electron rocket (Image: Rocket Lab) |
WELLINGTON, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand first space launch site was officially opened Tuesday, with Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce saying it would help generate the national space program.
Joyce said he was looking forward to the first launches this year from the privately run Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, on the Mahia Peninsula on the North Island's east coast, followed by more next year when Rocket Lab launched commercial payloads.
"Rocket Lab will be a catalyst for other space-related activity in New Zealand," Joyce said in a statement.
"Space activity is pervasive in our lives, to such an extent we are no longer aware that our Internet, our decision-making around energy and resource management, our marine surveillance to name only a tiny fraction, all rely on what we are doing in space."
Attracting international players would be easier now the government had established a regulatory regime to be managed by a new New Zealand Space Agency.
Read the full story at Xinhua