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Source: Reuters
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.
