Science Media Centre

Yesterday marked the start of the ten-day window in which Rocket Lab will attempt to launch its Electron rocket from the Mahia Peninsula in the Northern Hawkes Bay.  If they succeed, this will be the first rocket launched into space from New Zealand, making us the 11th country to do so. After high winds scrubbed […]

Rocket Lab, the Auckland-based aerospace company, unveiled its latest innovation at the US Space Symposium this week: a 3D-printed, battery-powered rocket engine. Rocket Lab founder and chief executive Peter Beck says that the Rutherford engine – named after New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford – is the world’s first battery-powered rocket engine and the first new rocket propulsion system created in 50 years, according […]