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.