New Zealand's nascent space industry aims for the stars
Source: The Straits Times
WELLINGTON - The grassy plains on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island, once home to cattle, have been transformed into a key aerospace facility for the Pacific nation as it looks to become a global hub for advanced aircraft and space exploration.
New Zealand is inviting aerospace companies from around the world to set up at the new Tawhaki National Aerospace Centre on the Kaitorete spit, a 25km long and 3km wide coastal site.
The centre, in which the government has to date invested NZ$29.4 million (S$20.7 million), is part of an ambitious plan to turn the country's nascent aerospace sector into a significant contributor to the agriculturally dependent economy.
There is little air traffic over the spit, launches over water minimise risk from falling debris, and a latitude deep in the Southern Hemisphere makes it easier to place satellites in specific orbits.
"You cannot underestimate our location in the world and how that is an enormous advantage," said Ms Judith Collins, who became the country's first space minister after the government was elected in October 2023.
Globally, the space and aerospace industries are growing fast; there were 50 per cent more commercial space launches in 2023 than a year earlier, according to the US Space Foundation.
Three industry experts said New Zealand's location gives it a leg up as it tries to muscle deeper into the more than US$600 billion (S$807.8 million) global market.
The country hosted seven rocket launches in 2023, the fourth-most globally, all by the US-listed and New Zealand-founded Rocket Lab.
The success of the US$2.07 billion company, which has launched 44 rockets in New Zealand since 2017, has helped develop a space technology sector that includes the likes of titanium 3D printer Zenith Technica.
But New Zealand is still a small player, even relative to its neighbours, with Australia's space sector worth around A$5 billion (S$4.49 billion) annually and Japan's worth US$27 billion.
New Zealand's space industry was worth roughly NZ$1.7 billion in 2019 - the latest data available - and the government wants to grow the aerospace industry to NZ$10 billion by 2030, offering a needed jolt to an economy that is in recession and struggling from weak productivity.
To do that, the government said ahead of being elected that it wants to reduce the regulatory burden for launches, testing and employment in the space sector.
New Zealand has signed several agreements to ease international collaboration, and in April, Ms Collins met with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration and US Space Command officials to promote New Zealand.
A local government owns and is growing a satellite monitoring facility in the southernmost part of New Zealand for clients that include the European Space Agency.
Tawhaki, a partnership between the government and local indigenous people, was chosen for its location near a main city and port on the east coast, so launches head off over the sea. At the moment, however, only advanced aircraft are being tested there.
"The reason Tawhaki was established was because of productivity. It was about how do we get more jobs, higher growth jobs, higher tech jobs, and start to think about land use in a different way," said Ms Linda Falwasser, the facility's chief executive.
More than 5,000 New Zealanders were directly employed in the space sector in 2019, up from almost none fifteen years earlier. There are more than 20 companies in the country founded solely to provide space-related services, according to New Zealand consultancy SpaceBase.