Rocket Lab's Māhia spaceport is so busy that last year New Zealand ranked third-equal with Russia for total launches. Photo / Rocket Lab
By Phil Pennington of RNZ
The Government has halved the time it takes to approve rocket launches as it chases the biggest global space boom in history.
National security and other checks on rocket payloads now take just over five weeks on average instead of 11 weeks.
The checking process still provides for the Space Minister to raise issues or for the spy agencies to order extra checks on a payload.
Māhia is this country’s only spaceport but its private owner, the NZ-founded US-listed Rocket Lab, is so busy that last year New Zealand ranked third-equal with Russia for total launches.
The National Aerospace Centre, a Government-iwi joint venture, is scouting for private foreign investment for a second launchpad at Kaitorete Spit, south of Christchurch.
The Government wants to double the size of the aerospace industry within a few years and a key way would be to offer more commercial, military and scientific satellite launches.
The Space Agency, which is part of the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment, sets the rules, and officials are about to consult the industry on more streamlining by amending the country’s core outer space and high-altitude law.
Ministerial briefings show they have already been taking advice from Rocket Lab.
“Rocket Lab has suggested improvements that we are either already pursuing or are considering for inclusion in the package of proposed amendments for industry consultation,” a briefing to Space Minister Chris Penk said four months ago.
Rocket Lab in turn told Penk: “The Space Agency has already made significant process improvements to speed up application timeframes.
“We continue to work with the Space Agency on other optimisations and system improvements but the current process and timeframes is serving Rocket Lab very well.”
Rocket Lab declined to comment to RNZ last week.
New Space Minister Paul Goldsmith told RNZ: “MBIE advised that they reviewed their internal processes and found they could be more efficient without affecting the quality of assessments.”
Payload vetting was sped up in late 2025. “I was advised that since then the average processing time has been trending downwards,” Goldsmith said.
The briefings say payload approvals have been sped up by updating a form, giving more guidance and omitting some inter-agency consultation for “low-risk” applications.
Officials also introduced a second time-saving measure for Rocket Lab, to end some duplication with American regulators for authorising its rocket launches here, the briefings showed.
The Trump Administration is fuelling the global space push with a series of executive orders and law changes. These aim to add launch capacity at its beleaguered spaceports.
US moves also increasingly integrate commercial providers into national security arrangements. Rocket Lab has signed several recent contracts that reflect that.
Rapidly rising defence spending in many countries increasingly includes a growing space budget, though most lack any launch pads to spend it at.
Commercially, companies such as SpaceX and Amazon have plans to launch many thousands of new satellites – small, low-orbit ones last just a few years and regularly fall into the atmosphere.
Despite this country’s ambitious space strategy, the newly released briefings described government support for space research and development as “ad hoc”. Launch efforts have struggled to add any public capacity beyond the private pad at Māhia.
The briefings – released by MBIE many months after they were asked for under an OIA – led to a meeting in May between space and defence and spy minister Chris Penk and Rocket Lab founder and chief executive Sir Peter Beck. Penk has since resigned.
Penk, in his notes, said: “My officials have been engaging with Rocket Lab on regulatory improvements and that early feedback has been useful to inform this work.”
RNZ asked MBIE if Rocket Lab suggested the cut in payload processing times.
It replied: “We are always open to considering feedback from stakeholders on how the regime is operating in practice.
“Rocket Lab highlighted the importance of timely decision-making, which was considered alongside a range of other factors, including maintaining effective risk management and ensuring regulatory requirements remain fit for purpose.”
Goldsmith said: “These changes ensure New Zealand has a world-leading regulatory environment and remains an attractive place for aerospace firms to invest, develop and commercialise new technologies.”
For the May 2026 meeting between Penk and Beck, the agenda focused on how the US-headquartered Rocket Lab’s plans might align with the Government’s objectives.
This included around space infrastructure, jobs and education, plus government support for space innovation and regulatory improvements.
One of the firm’s big plans is its new Neutron rocket; a briefing to Penk highlighted New Zealand’s limitations around Neutron.
“Rocket Lab is currently in the final stages of development of a larger medium-lift launch vehicle, Neutron,” Penk was told.
“Much of the R&D for Neutron took place in New Zealand; however, production is largely based in the US and it will launch from the US.
“Rocket Lab has cited the small scale of New Zealand’s industrial base as a reason for Neutron not launching from New Zealand.”
A briefing from Beck to Penk said the company – Nasdaq-listed and with a market capitalisation around $70 billion – was experiencing “record demand” partly because of other countries’ limited sovereign launch options.
Rocket Lab now also makes satellites and all sorts of space components in several factories in North America and in Auckland. It employs 1000 people in New Zealand, and Beck’s notes emphasised its commitment to New Zealand.
Beck said he would like to talk about ways to grow Rocket Lab and the New Zealand industry, including by developing “sovereign space capabilities”.
Penk agreed. He also wanted to talk about sovereign work and specifically a “national mission” to build one or more satellites.
The mission is a key Government goal. A “first step” was taken last December when the Kiwi Space Activator test programme was launched with $2m to co-fund space efforts.
“I am keen to understand Rocket Lab’s perspective on any infrastructure gaps or enablers needed to support future growth of the sector,” Penk’s meeting notes said.
The Space Agency told RNZ it was doing policy work on amendments to the Outer Space Act and that the timing of industry consultation depended on the minister.
“Any potential amendments to the legislation are informed by information from a range of sources, including sector stakeholders and our own regulatory experience,” it said in a statement.
“We are considering a range of changes.”
They were subject to Cabinet decisions.
“However, the intention is a more streamlined application process for both the regulator and applicants, while still ensuring risks are effectively managed.”
Penk’s meeting with Beck and tour of Rocket Lab’s Auckland factory in May appears to have been his first engagement as Space Minister after taking over from Judith Collins.
A reception followed at the US consulate, where remarks penned for Penk praised US-NZ space collaboration and added, “We now host the most US space launches of any country outside of the US.”
New Zealand is in an elite space club on key fronts: it is part of the seven-nation Pentagon-led Operation Olympic Defender; it also has had a much-vaunted deal for space technology transferral with Washington for a decade.
Beck told Penk it was a “rare” agreement.
He added New Zealand was primed to leverage its launch capability in a multibillion-dollar industry, and its regulatory regime was well calibrated to support growth “while managing risks”.
The space industry has rapidly ramped up and changed globally, reflected in New Zealand in miniature. Six hundred people from over 20 countries went to the national aerospace convention in Christchurch last year, where peace protesters chained themselves.
That opposition extends to recent legal action calling for a judicial review of payload approvals for Rocket Lab’s BlackSky satellite launches at Māhia.
Since last year, the Government has lifted a cap on total launch numbers by 10 times to 1000, and freed up testing airspace at Tāwhaki National Aerospace Centre near Christchurch.