New Zealand’s bureaucracy streamlines launch licensing process
Active and proposed spaceports in New Zealand and Australia
Based on advice from Rocket Lab, which has a private spaceport in New Zealand, the government there has trimmed its launch licensing process.
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.
It appears the changes involved in one case simply “updating a form”, and in a second case eliminating duplicate requirements from the U.S. that Rocket Lab already has to meet.
The government’s effort here appears tied as well to helping the National Aerospace Centre, a private company that wants to develop its own spaceport at Tāwhaki, south of Rocket Lab’s facility, as shown on the map. It also illustrates a major policy shift in New Zealand’s government, which a few years ago was very anti-business. The article details its effort to work with these space businesses to help them, noting also the influence of Trump’s pro-space decisions that have helped spur a worldwide aerospace boom.
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Ad Astra Middle Earth!