Rocket Lab has not responded to inquiries about payloads it has launched and their potential to intertwine with the US-Iran conflict.
Have any of the payloads launched by Rocket Lab from Māhia been used to help the US or its allies during its escalating conflict with Iran?
It’s a tricky question to know the answer to.
Rocket Lab has been quiet in the face of the question over the past few days, but on Monday issued a statement.
Communications director Murielle Baker said its role as a launch provider was limited to delivering satellites safely into orbit.
Responsibility for how those satellites were used rested with the satellite owner or operator, she said.
“Every satellite launched by Rocket Lab from Māhia to date has received approval from the New Zealand Government,” she said.
Baker said Rocket Lab launches would not be approved if they contravened New Zealand law or its international obligations, including payloads linked to nuclear weapons programmes or those intended to harm other spacecraft or systems on Earth.
Rocket Lab has previously launched satellites linked to United States defence programmes.
In 2019, it launched research satellites for the US Air Force’s Space Test Program from its Māhia site, including one sponsored by the US Army to test experimental space technology.
In 2021, another mission from the company’s Māhia site deployed the Monolith satellite, designed to test new sensor technologies for the US Space Force.
Space Minister Judith Collins said launches of payloads were only authorised by the Government if they aligned with New Zealand’s national interests and international obligations.
“New Zealand is firmly committed to the safe, responsible, and peaceful use of space,” she said.
“We have a strict condition prohibiting the sale of data to any individual or entity on New Zealand’s designated terrorist list or subject to New Zealand’s sanctions regulations.”
Collins said satellite operators could have thousands of customers that changed often, making it “unrealistic” to know them all.
Instead, she said, authorities focused on the capability of the payload and the controls companies have over their client.
Rocket Lab Monitor organiser Sonya Smith said the key question was not only what New Zealand allowed to launch through Rocket Lab, but how satellite data might be used.
“No party can deny modern wars increasingly rely on space-based data,” she said.
“Earth observation satellites are now part of the military ‘kill chain’, [which] is the sequence used to find and strike a target.”
Smith claimed satellites launched from Māhia could potentially still contribute indirectly to military operations, even if they were not weapons themselves.
“The issue is Rocket Lab launches BlackSky surveillance satellites, and BlackSky imagery is sold directly to defence clients,” she claimed.
“This creates a governance question that’s never been dealt with that leaves NZ wide open on liability or becoming a target itself: How responsible is a launching state-NZ for how satellite data is used later?”
Green Party foreign affairs spokesman Teanau Tuiono said the Government had a responsibility to ensure technologies launched from New Zealand were not being used to support war.
“If it were made clear that Rocket Lab launches from Aotearoa were supporting the illegal war on Iran, that would be a serious concern,” Tuiono said.
“This is not just about the militarisation of space. It is about New Zealand-launched satellites being used to support the militarisation of other parts of the world, including through satellite imaging in active war zones.
“The Government must be transparent about this.”
Rocket Lab is preparing a mission named Victus Haze for the US Space Force, expected to launch from Māhia later this year.
The mission is designed to demonstrate rapid-response space capabilities and the ability to respond quickly to potential threats in orbit.
Rocket Lab has also secured an $816 million contract with the US Space Development Agency’s Tracking Layer Tranche 3 programme, part of the US military’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.
The goal is to design and build missile-tracking satellites capable of detecting and tracking missile threats, including hypersonic weapons.
Rocket Lab’s most recent launch from Māhia took place on Friday, when an Electron rocket deployed a single Earth Observation satellite for a confidential commercial customer.