Charles and space: Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck helps King launch ‘Astra Carta’

Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck joined space industry leaders at Buckingham Palace where King Charles III unveiled the Astra Carta framework, aimed at accelerating space sustainability efforts and goals.

Kiwi space pioneer Peter Beck has helped King Charles III launch the “Astra Carta” - a set of broadly sketched sustainability principles aimed at private space operators.

An Astra Carta logo or “seal”, designed by legendary Apple designer Sir Jony Ive, was also unveiled at today’s Buckingham Palace event.

The event also featured Sir Brian May, the Queen guitarist who gained a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College, London in 2007 - finishing work he started in 1971.

Rocket Lab has pursued a number of sustainability strategies, including a satellite-deploying “kick stage” that can reorientate itself to burn up on re-entry - eliminating space junk - and, more recently, a first-stage booster that can be reused after being retrieved from the ocean.

King Charles unveils the Astra Carta seal, created by former Apple designer Sir Jony Ive.

Rocket Lab’s larger Neutron rocket, set for its first launch late next year, is designed to be fully reusable.

Beck is also in sympatico with the monarch’s passion for science, with Rocket Lab planning a privately funded mission to Venus next year in search of phosphine, a simple molecule associated with living organisms.

Queen guitarist turned astrophysicist Sir Brian May meets King Charles at the Buckingham Palace launch.

Ahead of the unveiling of the Astra Carta seal, Colonel Chris Hadfield, former astronaut and Commander of the International Space Station, addressed the room. Other guests included Major Timothy Peake, the second Brit into space - after scientist Helen Sharman.

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is technology editor and a senior business writer.