Rocket Lab needs to wait for Auckland to drop to 'level 3' to resume launches

Tuesday, 31 August 2021

Rocket Lab’s Auckland factory and mission control are not classed as an “essential service”

Rocket Lab won’t be able to resume launches of its Electron rockets until Auckland joins its base on the Māhia Peninsular near Gisborne in dropping down to Covid alert level 3.

The company, which listed on Nasdaq last week, had a busy schedule of launches planned before the New Zealand community outbreak of Delta, with one mission slated for “late August” and another two for September.

That would have been its fastest sequence of launches to date, before the Delta outbreak intervened.

Parts of the rockets are still in Auckland where Rocket Lab’s mission control facility, from which its launches are conducted, and its rocket factory are based.

“The launch vehicles are shipped in stages in the lead up to launch campaigns,” spokeswoman Morgan Bailey said.

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“The majority of two vehicles are at LC-1 and the final sections aren’t shipped until just prior to a launch window opening.

“Launch operations can resume when alert levels drop to level 3 or below in both Auckland and Māhia.”

All three launches are to deliver payloads into orbit for Earth monitoring company BlackSky.

Rocket Lab lobbied the Government last year to allow it to launch its Electron rockets during level 4 lockdowns.

But it has not been deemed as an “essential service” and was unsuccessful.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare workers and interns have been wearing CovidCards at work since last year (file photo).

Bailey said “overall” the company’s staff were in a position to work from home.

“We are able to keep a lot of things up and running.”

Rocket Lab has previously been allowed to move staff between Auckland and its launchpad at Māhia, LC-1, for launches when both have been at level 3.

Rocket Lab shares have continued to trade in a relatively narrow range since listing on Nasdaq on Thursday and closed this morning at US$10.03, valuing the company at US$5b (NZ$7.1b).

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, the country’s largest technology exporter, is deemed an essential service and its Auckland factory is continuing to operate at level 4.

One of its biggest product lines are non-invasive ventilators which have become a preferred way of treating Covid patients in hospitals around the world.

Its hospital products account for just under three-quarters of its revenues of just under $2b.

The company invested in New Zealand-developed Bluetooth ‘Covidcards’ earlier this year so it could help track contacts between its staff if anyone was infected.

Vice president Marcus Driller said then that the company needed to go “above and beyond” to reduce the risk of a manufacturing disruption because of its role in helping treat Covid patients around the world.

Spokeswoman Karen Knott said Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was an essential service so was “still working hard”.