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And we enter it in a rather unusual fashion compared to everyone else. We launched our first ever orbital satellite last week, but we don't have a government agency in charge. In fact, we have none. Instead, Rocket Lab has launched it as an independent private company with its own launchpad on land leased from the government. And, Rocket Lab is "technically" an American company, but it is managed and founded by a Kiwi, so... it counts! We're the first country in the world to launch satellites with a company in charge rather than the government, and heralds the beginnings of private enterprises taking charge.




You might notice the rocket is a little smaller than what you're used to seeing. Rocket Lab has been developing miniaturised satellites to lower costs to make it more economically viable to send them up. And while this all sounds like good news, there is some controversy. If you look out at the night sky and see a fast-moving obnoxiously bright blinking star, odds are, that's our satellite. The company sent up a giant disco ball into orbit that reflects sunlight back to Earth. It will be the brightest object in the night sky until it re-enters atmosphere in about 9 months. Astronomers took exception to this since light pollution is a major problem for them, and there are fears that the commercialisation of space will threaten further scientific efforts because of the rising threat of space junk.

EDIT: We didn't launch just one satellite into orbit. Our rocket delivered three, of which the biggest was... the flashing disco ball. Funnily enough, our original attempt to put up a satellite last year, with the rocket "It's a Test" failed, while our most recent launch by "Still Testing" was flawless. You didn't read those names wrong, by the way.

Well, at least they weren't being pretentious about it!

Having named output files "Test", "More Test", "MOAR TEST" and "EVEN MOAR TEST"; I can appreciate the transparency