Ummmmm so, shouldn’t we all discuss the thing Rocket Lab has actually done but no NZ media or Government ever talk about?

42
5429
I've put you all in terrible terrible danger.

It’s good that there is growing skepticism about Rocket Lab…

Rocket Lab: Peter Beck defends spy satellite work, ex-director speaks of leaving

Rocket Lab’s meteoric rise in the global space industry hit turbulence recently with its first operational mission loss. Meanwhile, questions continue over its launch of US intelligence satellites from New Zealand soil.

Stuff reporter George Block sat down with co-founder and chief executive Peter Beck at the company’s Auckland factory. He also spoke to the company’s seed investor and former co-director Mark Rocket, who parted ways with the company in 2011 after it started taking defence contracts.

…the problem is that this debate isn’t going far enough because what the vast majority of New Zealander’s have no idea about is how Rocket Lab and the National Party have made us, for the first time in NZ’s history, a genuine military target.

Rocket Lab fires rockets into space for the secretive National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) this is their charming patch…

…nothing erodes faith in the check and balance of extreme power quite like a giant orange space octopus proclaiming that nothing is out of its reach. Unbeknownst to most NZers, Rocket Lab is a Military Industrial Complex franchise, not some plucky Number 8 Wire Dad Shed schlock that Rocket Lab like to project to the sleepy hobbits of Muddle Nu Zilind…

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

Rocket Lab’s link with the CIA’s venture capital firm was revealed in 2016 by US investigative journalism site The Intercept, but has not been reported by the New Zealand media.

Although it operates independently, In-Q-Tel invests on behalf of the CIA and the broader US intelligence community in companies whose products may have national security applications.

A document obtained by The Intercept shows that Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck spoke at a summit of In-Q-Tel portfolio companies in February 2016. Other speakers included then-FBI director James Comey. Beck earlier wrote about Rocket Lab for In-Q-Tel’s quarterly publication in 2015.  

In contrast, Lockheed Martin’s investment in Rocket Lab is mentioned routinely in press coverage and was the subject of a jibe by departing Vector chairman Michael Stiassny to the Vector AGM last week.

However, the extent of Rocket Lab’s defence industry work has gone essentially unremarked. Details of this work had been removed from Rocket Lab’s website by the time the regulatory regime enabling the company’s activities in New Zealand came into law last year.

…in 2015, NZ quietly signed up to a 5 Eyes US Space programme that would allow Rocket Labs to launch US Military satellites from their Mahia Peninsula launchpad.

Put aside the zero public debate of whether or not we should get this close to the American Military Industrial Complex in the first place and note that no one ever explained to the NZ public how allowing Rocket Labs to launch US military satellites  immediately upgrades NZ to being a legitimate military target!

Because of this, Chinese Subs and Russian Subs will legitimately sit off the East Coast of NZ targeting the launch site.

THIS is why we needed to buy 4 P-8s! Because America is able to launch military satellites from NZ, which makes us a target and we need to defend that target with sub hunting planes!

New sub-killer planes may never fire in anger but Govt wants the option

Defence Minister Ron Mark has announced the Government will buy four Boeing P-8A Poseidons to replace the defence force’s ageing fleet of P-3K Orions. The purchase has been a longtime coming.

The P-8s, known as submarine killers, mark a new era in defence procurement, with one expert calling this the most significant defence purchase in a generation.

…so under National, we signed up to a military space programme through our 5 Eyes network that has now made us a legitimate military target which we need to buy sub hunting planes and torpedoes for???

When will it be made clear to the rest of the electorate that we have done this and put everyones lives at risk by Rocket Lab making us a legitimate military target?

 

Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice going into this pandemic and 2020 election – please donate here.

If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media.

42 COMMENTS

  1. This is seriously scary stuff, and it was reported in the Press yesterday.

    The whole business of Rocket Lab getting that R&D and then flogging it off to the yanks, what is in it for us, why don’t they have to return the government funding….

    • The Press article didn’t even mention Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest weapons manufacturer, a major investor in Rocket Lab.
      An election is coming up yet the issue that concerns me most ie our military and espionage entanglements are not discussed…not even questioned. Why the silence from our media?
      I do wish (sigh) that NZ could become a centre for the promotion of diplomacy..peace and reconciliation.

      • Yes , and make good on our reputation as a fair and independent nation , mainly forged through Labour govts (Kirk and Lange)
        It could be our brand
        The US refuses to negotiate a treaty banning the militarisation of space that Russia and China have put forward
        Both Nuclear powers that recognise the dangers and immense waste of money a space race poses
        The UN recognises the dire consequences of weapons in space but is stymied by the US
        I would like to know how NZ votes in the resolutions put forward in the General Assembly, and would really like a more transparent engagement with the public on foreign policy
        Lets start insisting on it
        “To prevent outer space from becoming another military battlefield, delegates today explored ways to establish a rules‑based order to securely govern that sphere, which they called “a common asset for humanity”, as the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) continued its work.”
        https://www.un.org/press/en/2018/gadis3609.doc.htm
        Statement from MFAT
        “New Zealand is a longstanding and proud supporter of the disarmament and non-proliferation movement globally.”
        We like to talk the talk but how about doing the mahi

  2. Settle down Martyn, why is it always evil National. Would a labour Government have stopped rocket lab. Don’t think so. Our spat with China could make us a military target in the future sometime as well. If any powerful country decided we were strategically important during a conflict we would be a military target. Let’s relax a little.

    • I’m blaming National BECAUSE THEY SIGNED US UP TO IT!!!!

      How am I supposed to blame Labour IF THEY DIDN’T US UP TO IT?

        • Settle down @ off white. Your beige little righties are showing.
          trump, bush and obama are the same fruit from the toxic cluster fuck tree the american corporates have hung the citizens of the u$a from.
          Re Rocket Blab? Well done @ MB for launching a counter attack on the curly Harpo who’s selling us out, or perhaps more correctly, has already done so.
          Nothing like seeing a number followed by a lot of zeros to make you forget your conscience and your morals aye Harpo?
          About a hundred K up, is where space’s at.
          One hundred k, or 62 miles for you lucky hermit bastards.
          Go outside of a clear evening just after sunset and look up? There they go. See? Satellites orbiting the earth. Amazing… At least they are the ones we can see hurtling around our biosphere in the last of the days sunshine before they disappear in the Earth’s shadow . There are many others, some the size of a stereo amp and others which are smaller and can look down your shirt collar.
          Learned that from the weird NASA display at MOTAT. Was all “Gosh! Gee Dad! ” set to appropriate muzak.
          Then there are satellites that can be put into a geostationary orbit. That means they match the rotation of the earth for you imagination challenged little righties and so will be all but invisible.
          And they sit up there, listening, monitoring, watching as mad scientists tinker with bombs, rockets and missiles. And I have zero doubt at all, those also who tinker with weaponised viruses and bacteria.
          Yep. Gee thanks Curly Harpo.
          Love your flag ensemble by the way.
          Who said ” Anyone who wants to wave a flag should never be allowed to fucking have one”? Billy Connolly I think it was?
          I wrote here sometime ago.
          If the security of our biosphere’s human citizens is to be assured, all human space travel must stop immediately.
          What do you do when you have a blow fly problem in the lounge?
          You spray the lounge and leave quickly as you close the door then come back later with the vacuum cleaner.

      • > I’m blaming National BECAUSE THEY SIGNED US UP TO IT!!!!

        Indeed, but Labour is buying the anti-sub planes, rather than reversing National’s decision. New View is correct that Labour would have done exactly the same. When it comes to increasing the powers of NZ police, secret police, and spy agencies, and our exposure to their US equivalents, the grand coalition of Labour and National have always marched in lockstep.

        When you examine their voting patterns in these areas, you realize how little democratic protection voting in elections really gives us.

      • In my opinion you don’t have to blame anyone. If labour had been in Government they might have signed it also. Ask this Government whether they are getting any security advantages from 5 eyes or why are we still signed up. The Nats haven’t had a say for 3 yrs. let’s not forget that rocket lab does good stuff that we don’t complain about like satellites that improve internet and other communications we take for granted and demand.

        • @ New View…?
          ” let’s not forget that rocket lab does good stuff…”
          Awesome. Like what?
          Put toasters in space? Perhaps they do, but it’s not about putting the toaster in space, is it?
          It’s about honing expertise, tweaking tech and gaining experience with regard to how, exactly, one goes about getting the toaster safely [there] then getting it back to the kitchen bench, again, safely. A burnt and malfunctioning space toaster is too much irony for me at this hour of the day.
          ( Tip @ Rocket Lab? Unplug it first or there goes the grid.
          Oh!? No, wait? roger ‘dumpy’ douglas has already swindled that and sold it off to them damn foreigners. (That’s why you people below the white bread line are cold as fuck.)
          I think it’s generally understood that the military industrial complex has been using the generally understanding populace to test tech within PC’s and cell phones for years and God only knows what else they’re doing that we’re forced to pay our taxes to them for to enable them to hide from us?
          Wikipedia:
          “The military–industrial complex (MIC) is an informal alliance between a nation’s military and the defence industry that supplies it, seen together as a vested interest which influences public policy.”
          I shudder to think. It’s either that, or my opiates are wearing off? ( Come to think of it…? I should check in with my iBot to see if it can gain from the internet linked satellite in a geostationary orbit over my shitter as to when I last moved my bowels. Unfortunately, it’s placed over Ethiopia at the mo so bare with dahlings?)
          If only Queenstown had a space portal, aye?
          The Guardian.
          “Virgin Galactic offers peek inside new space plane for tourists ”
          https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jul/29/virgin-galactic-offers-peek-inside-new-space-plane-for-tourists
          Or?
          ( You can finish a sentence with “or” but you can’t start one, like Fish and chips.. or? Air NZ safety video with the ever fabulous Rhys Darby.
          Here it is and it’s the best one ever. I loved the …’stash on the foxy.
          https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/82325457/anna-faris-and-rhys-darby-star-in-air-new-zealands-new-safety-video
          Or? Those fuckers are up to something. And like judith collins, It won’t be pretty.
          I say, we say, no.
          Nope siree. Narp. You rich fucker flies aren’t going to hover over the dinner table while we, the hosts, murder each other in desperation over a bottle of bottled water.
          Was bottled AO/ NZ water but we were lucky enough to buy it back from the Chinese via judith collin’s husband for only $564,987,987,456.00. And we got it cheap because it was past its use-by date.
          That, my beautiful fellow humanoids was a metaphor.
          ( Some rich fuckers. You must be on quite the hourly rate aye Boys?
          Boingboing.net.
          “This visualization of the ultra-rich’s wealth blew my mind”
          https://boingboing.net/2020/04/29/this-visualization-of-the-ultr.html )

    • NV – “Our spat with China”
      Is this the spat we initiated by NZ following the USA in interfering with Honk Kong security.
      HK riots have been the product of NED, a US funded operation controlled by the CIA and used in many countries to create separation or coups.
      I am suprised at the stupidity of the NZ govt adopting the verbiage of US propaganda about Honk Kong.
      NED is promoting terrorism in Hong Kong as it has done in many countries including Ukraine and Venezuela. China has put a stop to illegal activity promoted by NED.

      When Britain had Hong Kong there was no democracy there, no voting for political or local representatives as HK was ruled by decree from London and local administration was carried out by Indians hired by Britain.
      Now HK is returned to China there are elected political and local representatives so democracy has arrived under China and run by Chinese HK people.

      The so called “Democracy Movement ” is an American ploy to destablise HK and create mayhem. This is the usual pattern of NED operation under the CIA direction.
      Now the police in HK are not under attacked organised by NED because the leaders of the riots are confined by the implementation of laws providing security.
      The people of Hong Kong can carry out their normal business and live in relative peace which is what the over whelming majority of Hong Kong people want.
      NZ is under USA command obviously and now has a satellite launching pad for the USA industrial military complex devoted to global war.
      NZ is a spying Nation feeding information to the USA. NZ does not even get benefit of shared information that might concern us directly. Its one way command an NZ does what the USA tells it to do.

      But we will pay with a cost of lost trade with China as China reacts to our attempted interference with their sovereign territory.
      The Kiwi farmer who will loose dollars because of this latest stupidity by NZ, will be paying for NZ colluding with the US unwarranted attack on China.
      Winston’s turn around against China will not be ignored.
      Australia was to loose some of its beef trade with China for a similar reason as China has said that it will import more from NZ instead, but now we have killed that, South America will provide China with beef and possibly milk products. The USA will not compensate NZ.

      • John W: Excellent comment.

        Mike Smith over at the Standard has an excellent summary of the situation relating to Hong Kong. Indeed the new laws against subversion and secession are fully in line with what was agreed with the British and enacted in 1990. https://thestandard.org.nz/hong-kong-principles/

        The fact that the media and Western politicians ignore this plain fact is absolutely astonishing.

        • >the new laws against subversion and secession are fully in line with what was agreed with the British and enacted in 1990.

          Any “agreements” with British colonizers are entirely beside the point. Either we support the human right to self-determination for the people of HK (and Taiwan, and Tibet, and Xinjiang, and. ..), or we support the CCP’s presumed “right” to subject the people living in any territory it claims to ruthless totalitarian rule, where accusation equals guilt. Which in a sad irony, is exactly what the Chinese people fought the communist revolution to prevent the Koumintang from doing to them.

          I totally agree with No Right Turn on this, cancelling the extradition treaty with HK is the only principled response, and I’d add it’s one of the few laudible foreign policy moves the current govt has made.
          http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2020/07/no-extradition-to-tyrannies.html

          • So basically you are a secessionist. Do you support the NED and CIA involvement in the Hong Kong riots so biasly reported in our “news”.
            I wonder whether you really know anything objective about Xinjiang or the history of why China agreed to take back the area of Tibet into its borders.
            Your no right turn link contains this.
            “The law imposes a penalty of life imprisonment for secession, subversion, and “colluding with foreign forces” – which basicly means peacefully advocating for democracy or independence”
            Which is not only inaccurate but goes on to tell porkies about the “peaceful demonstrations” I think they are referring to the NED instigated riots by a small minority with leaders in the USA and UK. US congress finances these operations.

        • Mark I had not read Mikes comment but it does outline much of what is absolutely ignored bout the Honk Kong hand over agreement.
          The problem is the news in NZ is controlled by Reuters or another branch of western propaganda network RNZ and our MSM subscribe to and by the sound of it our politicians subscribe to.
          US PR is a well honed industry very capable and with substantial resource to distort the facts selectively and promote bare faced lies repeatedly until they are accepted. Fools accept information from US sources without checking background of the authors and the history of the wider environment the so called “news” is centered.
          Also it has to be mandatory to look at the Chinese version of the story before swallowing so called Western news .
          The Chinese seldom exaggerate or make claims that are not transparent.

      • Have you been to Hong Kong John? I have, a number of times. I’ve talked to a lot of ordinary HK people about how they see CCP rule and the independence protests. I can assure you, without hesitation, that the HK protests are a genuine popular uprising. The claims of “foreigner interference” are CCP propaganda and the “evidence” put forward for it evaporates when you scratch the surface.

  3. Company Beck has gone from polluting space with disco balls to perving on the world, surveilling people to kill and putting New Zealand at great risk. He will be praised for his sycophantic industriousness by psychopaths in this country and beyond.

  4. C’mon let’s be honest if Fiji wanted to invade us they could. What is the CCP or Russia going to target – The Avondale markets or Ohakune’s big carrot? And then we come to Rocket Lab’s performance to date – makes SpaceForce under Steve Carrell look competent. Remember this is a creature of corporate welfare and not sure if has even made $1 profit.

    If the government wanted to walk out of the contract they could – they chose not to. This government is merely an extension of the Key/Clark regimes. But sure let’s see the real change post Winston – it will be good this time…..promise

    • Winston is only interested in Winston’s party remaining in there. You can see him ‘worrying’ about the demise of ‘Rio tinto’ plant but is he worrying about the 50,000 people unemployed in South and West Auckland na na na na PATHETIC!

  5. Ok Martyn, you win. National signed up to it. Woopdeedoo. What now? Who cares. If you want privacy and protection, get off the internet and stop using your smartphone ok!

    • Lots of us care Herman, I don’t have a cellphone and I am not interested in these geeks knowing where I am every minute of the day. Perhaps there is something in my lavatory now so they know how many times I shit a day….

      • Don’t want them to know? So get off the internet quick! But you just can’t can you…

        • Well Herman I notice you are on the internet and you are telling others to get off.
          Why not stick to the thread.
          Many Kiwis don’t want 5 eyes nor US sponsored spy networks.

  6. This should really be NZ’s “nuclear moment” of the 21st Century. It’s the equivalent situation, but we’re all now silently accepting? What has happened to us as a nation>

  7. Golriz was the first to raise the alarm on this, yet she has been sent back down the line by the Greens. Unless their decision was based on specific health concerns for her, it seems like a mean and rather stupid decision for them to make.

    • Frankly she hasn’t performed, that is why she is further down the track. One thing, one thing is not enough. The members rank them not the heirarchy you know.

  8. The P8s make us a target quite apart from their support role for this. Prior to the P8s, the air force had no strike capability. I didn’t understand why we would accept that new position – but this makes sense of it.

    • You honestly think we’ll arm the planes…..really??? The same armed services that has to “steal” tyres from Australia during recent peacekeeping efforts just to keep our vehicles moving? These are slow moving tubs that you can strap a couple of torpedoes on not F16s or F18s

      We blew our wad on the planes – they’ll be like the skyhawks – empty shells that will require considerable avionic upgrades every 2-3 years. The weapons themselves – bhahahaha – good joke that one.

      I’m sure China and Russia are shaking in their boots over this……..

      • FTT
        I get your reference to China but how does Russia fit into the comment.
        Could you explain your thinking please.

  9. When these nerds began launching satellites I was genuinely happy that smaller nations would now become able to do what the US does only from another angle so they could spot & then calculate drone flight-paths etc.
    Looking back the next move was predictable; of course the amerikans are going to buy into & control such a program even if they have no real use for it. Which seems likely as there is little rocket labs does that their own hugely expensive padded & corrupt arms & aeronautics industry doesn’t do.

    Of course it doesn’t sit well if some small company based in Aotearoa can chuck a spy eye in the sky for a few hundred thousand kiwi dollars when Lockheed & all their MIC mates split billions of USD every year for doing the same thing.
    Integrity? I don’t see how that figures when one of the earliest faces of rocket lab had the same name & appearance as a chap widely reputed to have invented home-baking (ie turning codeine an over the counter medication back then, into morphine a scheduled narcotic) who then sold the recipe for a few grand a pop back in the ’80s – if the two are connected, it is difficult to believe integrity would be a priority.

  10. I’m sure we’re not launching any nuclear powered satellite, or weapons.

    As for surveillance satellites .. more private sector, global mapping satellites – I’d imagine .. but some (All?? lol) of those companies will have links to the American Government.

    As for China, Russia, etc .. Rocket Lab would probably launch for them .. but then you might have the NZSIS snooping into matters .. payloads .. proprietary tech .. eek

    I’d imagine Rocket Lab could throw some alternative GPS guidance satellites up there for the US .. lot of anti-satellite weaponry going around .. put 2-n-2 together.

    The whole thing is a bit crazy .. reality is smaller nations like NZ that want a space industry have to deal with the bigger players.

    New Zealand is that friend who you like, but smells a little .. so you wind the car window down. Occasionally both America and China point out we smell .. but our pheromones keep them coming back .. and we’re alright dudes.

    eek, gross but true .. welcome to NZ.

    I do think it’s awesome that we’re sending rocket with payloads into space .. that’s one thing that makes me proud to be a Kiwi.

  11. Have you been to Hong Kong John? I have, a number of times. I’ve talked to a lot of ordinary HK people about how they see CCP rule and the independence protests. I can assure you, without hesitation, that the HK protests are a genuine popular uprising. The claims of “foreigner interference” are CCP propaganda and the “evidence” put forward for it evaporates when you scratch the surface.

Comments are closed.