Dr Oliver Hartwich: Hobbiton or space nation? NZ can’t seem to decide

New Zealand is barely a military power. It has had no combat aircraft for 25 years, and its ageing frigates need replacing. Lifting defence spending to 2 per cent of GDP passes for ambition. The country comes across as a real-world Hobbiton: peaceful, friendly and not very capable.

Yet one capability puts New Zealand in the club of superpowers, and it is the last one anyone would expect. Last year, only the United States and China saw more rockets leave their soil. New Zealand, with 17 launches, matched Russia.

Professor Alexander Gillespie: NZ’s commercial rocket industry is taking off, but national space law needs a boost

News of a potential new rocket launch site in Canterbury has largely been enthusiastically received. Boosts to the regional and national economies, and to New Zealand’s competitiveness in a crowded sector, have been welcomed.

But it also shines a light on the rapidly growing military-industrial use of space, and the pressing need for both national and international law to keep up.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Space launches

Don't Bet Against NZ. We have the 4th highest no. of space launches in the world (after US, Russia & China).

Amongst the doom & gloom, its time for uplifting news. Isn't it extraordinary NZ now ranks as having the 4th highest number of space rocket launches in the world?

Geoffrey Miller: Aukus door held ajar for New Zealand

Last week’s visit to New Zealand by US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman was another in a series of high-level calls on the country by top US military and political figures this year.

Sherman’s trip to Wellington came soon after a stop in New Zealand’s capital by Admiral John Aquilino, the head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and only two months after a visit by Mark Lambert, a US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State with responsibility for East Asia and the Pacific.

A tangible outcome of Sherman’s trip was the signing of a new ‘Framework Agreement’ to underpin co-operation between New Zealand and the United States in the space sector.

On the surface, this might appear to be largely unrelated to growing geopolitical tensions.