Napier man’s rise from life on a farm to putting together rockets in the US

Napier’s Tim Charlton would have laughed six years ago if you’d told him his future involved working with rockets in the US.

However, a career change and the rise of Rocket Lab has made that a reality.

Charlton heads for the US on Wednesday to work at Rocket Lab’s two launch pads in Virginia.

He will be part of the company’s bold plan to launch a new 40m-tall rocket, called Neutron, into orbit, which could happen by the end of the year.

He will be helping get the company’s new launch pad (Launch Complex 3) up to scratch as part of that project.

Charlton’s now wealth of experience comes from working at the company’s launch pad in Mahia, in northern Hawke’s Bay, for five years mostly as a technical operations manager.

He’s been involved in nearly all of the 43 rocket launches Rocket Lab has completed since its first mission in 2018.

Remarkably, Charlton said his career with the company started on something of a whim.

Having grown up on a farm in Dannevirke, and later working in horticulture for 15 years, including as an engineer for Bostock NZ, he noticed an ad for a job with Rocket Lab.

“I’ve always been interested in that field and a bit of a space enthusiast, and just happened to come across the job listing one night,” he said.

“I thought ‘that sounds pretty interesting, I’ll give it a go’ and that was about it.”

His work has included receiving Electron rockets (the company’s 18m-tall rocket) in three parts at the Mahia launch pad and putting it together, as well as running checks and modifications at the launch pad before and after launches.

Rocket Lab's Tim Charlton, from Napier, looking over his 40-odd mission patches from previous Rocket Lab launches. Photo / Connull Lang

He said he had loved the work and was excited to have a new opportunity to work in the US, on the company’s ambitious plan for its Neutron rocket.

“I’m pretty damn excited to get over there and get stuck into things.”

He said it was incredible the opportunities which were now available to people in New Zealand to have a career in the space industry, following the rise of Rocket Lab, which was founded by Kiwi Peter Beck.

“If you had asked me kind of six or seven years ago whether I’d be working on a Nasa base in the US in the space industry, I would have gone ‘no-one from New Zealand does that’.”

Rocket Lab’s launch pad in Virginia includes two launch pads (including one under construction) which are located on the Nasa Wallops site, on Wallops Island.

The company has its headquarters in California, as well as its sizeable operation in Auckland, and now employs over 1600 people.

Gary Hamilton-Irvine is a Hawke’s Bay-based reporter who covers a range of news topics including business, councils, breaking news and cyclone recovery. He formerly worked at News Corp Australia.