New Zealand is to pass laws soon to give Rocket Lab the go-ahead to start launching its rockets as early as this August (maybe)...
http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/govt-moves-to-regulate-nzs-space-industry-2016061412A curious thing happened on Twitter recently with regards to Rocket Lab. They have a
US and a
NZ feed, but a few weeks back all the NZ tweets were removed and its remained silent ever since. One possible reason for this were photos appearing on it of visits to Rocket Lab by (first) the NZ Minister of Finance, (the NZ government has put some money into RL), and then by the NZ Leader of the Opposition (via a retweet). I suspect someone at RL with no sense of humour may have had second thoughts about such photos appearing. (The NZ Prime Minister's photo appears more than once in the US feed.)
Rocket launches are spectacular events, whether successful or otherwise. How well these ones go could affect the result of next year's election, with a lot of failures being a bad omen for the current government.
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