Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 (also known as Mahia Launch Complex or Spaceport) is a commercial

spaceport A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching or receiving spacecraft, by analogy to a seaport for ships or an airport for aircraft. The word ''spaceport''—and even more so ''cosmodrome''—has traditionally referred to sites capable of ...

located close to Ahuriri Point at the southern tip of

Māhia Peninsula Māhia Peninsula () is located on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, in the Hawke's Bay region, between the towns of Wairoa and Gisborne. It includes Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1, located near Ahuriri Point at the southern tip ...

, on the east coast of

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

North Island The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...

. It is owned and operated by

private spaceflight Private spaceflight is any spaceflight development that is not conducted by a government agency, such as NASA or ESA. During the early decades of the Space Age, the government space agencies of the Soviet Union and United States pionee ...

company

Rocket Lab Rocket Lab Corporation is a Public company, publicly traded aerospace manufacturer and List of launch service providers, launch service provider. Its Rocket Lab Electron, Electron orbital rocket launches Small satellite, small satellites, and ha ...

and supports launches of the company's

Electron The electron (, or in nuclear reactions) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary charge, elementary electric charge. It is a fundamental particle that comprises the ordinary matter that makes up the universe, along with up qua ...

rocket for

small satellite A small satellite, miniaturized satellite, or smallsat is a satellite of low mass and size, usually under . While all such satellites can be referred to as "small", different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass. Satellites c ...

s. The facility officially opened on 26 September 2016 (

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

). With the launch of Electron on 25 May 2017, it became the first private spaceport to host an orbital launch attempt, and the first site in New Zealand to host an orbital launch attempt. With the Electron launch of 21 January 2018, it became the first private spaceport to host a successful orbital launch.

Location

The spaceport is located close to Ahuriri Point at the southern tip of New Zealand's

, in the

Hawke's Bay Region Hawke's Bay () is a region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region is named for Hawke Bay, which was named in honour of Edward Hawke. The region's main centres are the cities of Napier and Hastings, while the more rural ...

of the North Island's east coast. The site is a raised plateau surrounded on three sides by cliffs, and at an altitude of . The only road access is a single road leading north from the site. This crosses the isthmus connecting the peninsula with the rest of the North Island before connecting with SH 2 at the settlement of

Nūhaka Nūhaka is a small settlement in the northern Hawke's Bay Region of New Zealand's eastern North Island, lying on State Highway 2 between Wairoa and Gisborne. The road to Māhia Peninsula turns off the highway at Nūhaka. Nūhaka has one gen ...

. The nearest town,

Wairoa Wairoa is the largest town in the Wairoa District and the northernmost town in the Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located on the northern shore of Hawke Bay at the mouth of the Wairoa River and to the west of Mā ...

, lies to the northwest of the launch site, around the curve of

Hawke Bay Hawke Bay (), formerly named ''Hawke's Bay'', is a large bay on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand, surrounded by the Hawke's Bay region. It stretches from Māhia Peninsula in the northeast to Cape Kidnappers / Te Kauwae-a-Mā ...

Description

Launch Complex 1 features a launch platform and tower, a hangar for the Electron rockets, and storage tanks for

liquid oxygen Liquid oxygen, sometimes abbreviated as LOX or LOXygen, is a clear cyan liquid form of dioxygen . It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an application which is ongoing. Physical ...

and

kerosene Kerosene, or paraffin, is a combustibility, combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in Aviation fuel, aviation as well as households. Its name derives from the Greek (''kērós'') meaning " ...

. During the test phase of launch operations, which began in May 2017, the

exclusion zone An exclusion zone is a geographic area in which specific activities are prohibited by an authority. The United States Department of Defense defines an exclusion zone is a territory where an authority prohibits specific activities in a specific g ...

was expected to be an radius from the pad that was predicted to reduce in size once the site became commercially operational.

History

Site options

Rocket Lab announced on 1 July 2015 that it had selected

Kaitorete Spit Kaitorete Spit is a long finger of land which extends along the coast of Canterbury, New Zealand, Canterbury in the South Island of New Zealand. It runs west from Banks Peninsula for , and separates the shallow Lake Ellesmere / Te Waihora from th ...

in New Zealand's

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

near

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

as the site of the launch facility for its

rocket, and that it hoped to have construction finished by the end of the year. While the site would not permit equatorial launches due to the presence of

Banks Peninsula Banks Peninsula () is a rocky peninsula on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand that was formed by two now-extinct volcanoes. It has an area of approximately . It includes two large deep-water harbours — Lyttelton Harbour a ...

to the east, it was favourable for

Sun-synchronous orbit A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it is ...

al flights, which the company believed would be of primary interest to its customers. The site was also logistically favourable as the company wanted to build a rocket production facility in nearby

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 survey image

The

site at Onenui Station was mentioned in August 2015 as a possible second launch facility. It had first been visited by company officials in April 2015 as part of their initial scouting for launch sites, and were preparing to submit a

resource consent A resource consent is the authorisation given to certain activities or uses of natural and physical resources required under the New Zealand Resource Management Act (the "RMA"). Some activities may either be specifically authorised by the RMA or ...

application. By mid-October, the application had been approved by the

District Council and

Hawke's Bay Hawke's Bay () is a region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region is named for Hawke Bay, which was named in honour of Edward Hawke. The region's main centres are the cities of Napier and Hastings, while the more rural ...

Regional Council only seven days after its submission, with the Gisborne Chamber of Commerce and the Eastland Community Trust working with Rocket Lab to support its bid for the Mahia site.

Decision for Mahia

On 23 November 2015, Rocket Lab stated that the Māhia Peninsula site would be the priority launch facility because of delays in obtaining resource consents for developing at Kaitorete Spit. While certain authorisations had been obtained for Kaitorete, such as stormwater and air discharge permits from Environment Canterbury, a coastal permit for occupation of the area, and a Department of Conservation permit, the Christchurch City Council had not consented to the development due to an incomplete Cultural Impact Assessment, resulting in no action under Sections 95 and 104 of the

Resource Management Act 1991 The Resource Management Act (RMA) passed in 1991 in New Zealand is a significant, and at times, controversial Act of Parliament. The RMA promotes the sustainable management of natural and physical resources such as land, air and water. New Zea ...

. The company said that efforts would continue to gain consent for a launch pad on Kaitorete Spit due to its logistical superiority and the foreseen need for additional facilities, but that the Mahia site offered superior launch corridor and flight rate opportunities because of its geographical location and relatively sparse air traffic. A license was granted for the Mahia site with a maximum launch rate of once every 72 hours over a period of 30 years, while the Kaitorete site would only have been licensed to launch once per month. The company broke ground at Mahia in December 2015, and by June 2016 most of the infrastructure work had been completed, including upgrades to roads and internet services, and work was progressing on the electrical, mechanical and communications infrastructure. Rocket Lab signed an agreement with

air traffic service In aviation, an air traffic service (ATS) is a service which regulates and assists aircraft in real-time to ensure their safe operations. In particular, ATS is to: * prevent collisions between aircraft; provide advice of the safe and efficient con ...

provider

Airways New Zealand Airways New Zealand (Airways Corporation of New Zealand Limited) is the sole Air Traffic Service provider in New Zealand. The company was created 1987 as a State-Owned Enterprise having formerly being a division of the Ministry of Transport, ...

in early September 2016 to develop "special use airspace." The Māhia Peninsula site, named Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, was officially opened on 26 September 2016 (

) in a ceremony presided over by Minister for Economic Development

Steven Joyce Steven Leonard Joyce (born 7 April 1963) is a New Zealand former politician, who entered the New Zealand House of Representatives in 2008 as a member of the New Zealand National Party. As a broadcasting entrepreneur with RadioWorks, he was a ...

. It was attended by approximately 240 people, including company employees, local landowners, and then Labour Party leader Andrew Little.

Launch history

Pad A

On Pad A or LC-1A (at ) Rocket Lab carried out the first test flight of its Electron rocket, named "It's a Test", on 25 May 2017 at 04:20

, coming after three delays caused by bad weather during a launch window that extended from 21 May to 1 June. While lift-off from Launch Complex 1 was successful, the rocket failed to reach its intended

, only making it to about . The second launch from the

launch pad A launch pad is an above-ground facility from which a rocket-powered missile or space vehicle is vertically launched. The term ''launch pad'' can be used to describe just the central launch platform (mobile launcher platform), or the entire c ...

was made 21 January 2018 at 01:43 UTC, successfully making it to orbit. The Electron rocket, named "Still Testing", carried a Dove Pioneer satellite for

Planet Labs Planet Labs PBC (formerly Planet Labs, Inc. and Cosmogia, Inc.) is a publicly traded American Earth imaging company based in San Francisco, California. Their goal is to image the entirety of the Earth daily to monitor changes and pinpoint tren ...

, two Lemur-2 satellites for

Spire Global Spire Global, Inc. is a space-to-cloud data and analytics company that specializes in the tracking of global data sets powered by a large constellation of nanosatellites, such as the tracking of maritime, aviation and weather patterns. The comp ...

and the

Humanity Star ''Humanity Star'' was a reflective passive satellite designed to produce visible, pulsing flares. The satellite was launched into orbit by an Electron rocket on 21 January 2018 and entered into the atmosphere on 22 March 2018. The reaction to ...

Pad B

On 19 December 2019, Rocket Lab announced that they had begun construction on a second pad at LC-1, known as LC-1B (at ) to meet increased launch rates. As of April 2020, the construction was expected to be completed by the end of 2020. It was used for the first time to launch the mission "The Owl's Night Continues" for

Synspective Synspective is a private space company formed in 2018 in Tokyo, Japan. The company specializes in synthetic aperture radar satellites, and operate a constellation of these satellites for advanced earth imaging. History The company was formed in ...

on 28 February 2022.

Notes

References

External links

Rocket Lab website
{{Wairoa District Launch Complex 1 Spaceports Rocket launch sites in New Zealand Buildings and structures in Hawke's Bay 2016 establishments in New Zealand Māhia Peninsula