Rocket Lab launches spacecraft carrying US military tech

Friday, 29 March 2019

Although it launches from New Zealand, Rocket Lab has multiple ties with the US military.

Rocket Lab has launched its Risk Reduction Deployment Demonstration (R3D2) spacecraft in a test that carried United States military technology.

The launch took place at midday, Friday, from its launch pad in Mahia Peninsula, in the Wairoa district.

Rocket Lab, founded by Kiwi Peter Beck, launched an experimental antenna for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the US Department of Defense's experimental technology division. It had been approved at the ministerial level in New Zealand.

'The mission could help validate emerging concepts for a resilient sensor and data transport layer in low Earth orbit, a capability that does not exist today, but one which could revolutionise global communications by laying the groundwork for a space-based internet,' Beck said in January.

Rocket Lab launched its spacecraft carrying a DARPA load from Mahia on Friday.

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'The antenna, made of a tissue-thin Kapton membrane, packs tightly inside the small satellite for stowage during launch, before deploying to its full size of 2.25 metres in diameter once it reaches low Earth orbit,' he said.

Rocket Lab's R3D2 launch followed a successful 2018 for the company, which included a partnership with US space agency NASA.

Although it launches from New Zealand, Rocket Lab has multiple ties with the US military.

One of the company's investors is Lockheed Martin, the world's largest weapons manufacturer.

DARPA was described as the Pentagon's 'mad science division', tasked with pioneering new technology for both military and commercial applications.