This is kinda to do with shooting!! I personally think this is a total waste of money however Rocket Lab must be clever to get Mark Rocket to invest a few million!!

They say it cost $50,000 to $100,000 for each rocket to go 120km up and down they have 2KG of space to sell each time just do the maths! not only that they still need to recover the rocket to get ya stuff back after!

The privately-held Rocket Lab’s largest investor is internet entrepreneur Mark Rocket (who has already booked his ticket on Virgin Galactic’s pending sub-orbital service).



Check out the TradeMe Auction

The Winning Bidder Will Have The Opportunity To:

• Include up to 100 grams of payload on the rocket
• View the launch as a VIP at Great Mercury Island
• Gain exclusive access to the launch site and pre-launch activities
• Secure branding space on the rocket and launch infrastructure
• Be a part of New Zealand history

Looks like it is all rigged look at the people bidding they are all new accounts!

This is a x-mate new project (Mark Rocket) he was my opposition a few years ago and basically I do not like him, however he gets a bit a press every now and again some this posting will hijack so of his traffic!

This is not the same Mark Rocket however not far of it!

If someone is at the launch please make sure you have a video camera! hate to miss some good video!

NZ's first space rocket a fizzer

LATEST: The engineers organising and attempting to launch New Zealand's first space rocket still hope for lift-off today, after a technical hitch stalled this morning's launch.

A frozen fuel connection caused the delay, delaying the launch of Atea-1.

The six-metre rocket was due to lift off from Great Mercury Island at 7.10am but was put back to give scientist Peter Beck and his team from Rocket Lab the chance to fix the aerocoupler, which connects the fuel line to the rocket.

The coupler was meant to disconnect automatically, but Rocket Lab director Mark Rocket said it appeared the connection had frozen.

A helicopter was dispatched from the launch site at Great Mercury Island to Whitianga to pick up another hydraulic coupling from an engineering supplier.
Mr Rocket said it was disappointing to delay the launch but "that's what happens in this game".

The Rocket Lab team have been on the island since last week, preparing the launch site on a level area above Rocky Bay on the east coast of the island.
A crowd of about 50 people – including island owner Sir Michael Fay, broadcaster Paul Holmes and MPs Sandra Goudie and David Shearer – had gathered from about 5.30am on rocks 500 metres away from the picturesque launch site to watch the takeoff.

Mr Beck and his team spent from about 3am today fuelling the rocket – a long and dangerous process – but at 7.30am, the fuel was dumped from the rocket and technicians emerged from a bunker close to the launch site to begin repairs.

The rocket, scheduled to be New Zealand's first into space, was built by the Rocket Lab team and Mr Rocket said a successful launch would put New Zealand at the forefront of the southern hemisphere space race.

Mr Beck said it had taken about 13 years of work to get to the launch site but he wouldn't actually get to see the launch as he ran the operation from a bunker below the rocket site.

He said yesterday it was fairly common for rockets to fail on the launch pad.
"That's what happens when you are pushing the boundaries."

Mr Beck had told media: "If this thing spuds on the launch pad, go easy on me."

New Zealand aerospace company Rocket Lab is counting down to the historic launch of a space-bound rocket from Great Mercury Island.

The launch from the private island, off the Coromandel Peninsula, in about a fortnight will be the first time in the southern hemisphere a privately owned company has launched a rocket to space.

Rocket Lab is holding online auctions both for premium viewing spots on the island and for payload space on the rocket.

Chief executive Peter Beck says the rocket, Atea-1, has a 2kg payload capacity and expects interest from commercial parties keen to send products or services into space, or people wanting to send personal mementos.

Beck says the project will give the global scientific community the first practical alternative to conventional rockets at significantly lower cost, as it can carry miniature scientific equipment.

But the coming launch will be the first in a series where the primary payload will be instrumentation measuring the machine's performance.

The small rocket will use a new low-emission hybrid fuel technology.

It will travel at Mach 5 to an altitude of 120 kilometres - 20km on from where space starts - then return to Earth in a sub-orbital ballistic arc, to be recovered from the sea.

Launch week begins on November 30 and the actual launch day will be dependent on weather conditions.

See http://www.3news.co.nz/Technology/ATEA1RocketLaunch/tabid/1271/Default.aspx