New Zealand To Launch A Rocket To The Moon

New Zealand is now joining the ambitious space race just like the U.S., Russia and China. It will test launches in the coming months to send a rocket to the Moon.

Peter Beck, who founded the Rocket Lab in 2006, said that they recently qualified the first stage of the vehicle. He further said that this was the last major technical milestone ahead of the first test flight. They are now completing various final checks and working through international licensing.

Watch the latest test of the @RocketLabUSA Electron rocket motor https://t.co/j0oTYgtUJc pic.twitter.com/JR5WBpOe3M

— Mach 30, Inc. (@Mach_30) January 19, 2017

Rocket Lab is in partnership with the United States Moon Express in agreement to send three rockets to the Moon as soon as 2017. The three test launches are scheduled for the coming months on the east coast of the North island between Napier and Gisborne. This will be followed by several commercial missions, according to NZ Herald.

The financial investors of Rocket Lab are the Silicon Valley venture capitalists, Sir Stephen Tindall's K1W1 investment fund and Lockheed Martin. It received up to $25 million of government funding for five years. Rocket Lab also signed a Commercial Space Launch Act Agreement with NASA. The company could then utilize NASA resources including facilities, personnel and equipment for launch efforts, according to New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.

Meanwhile, Moon Express is a San Francisco-based company that focuses on building sustainable, full-service space exploration business. It aims to achieve the Google Lunar XPRIZE, which is a competition to land a privately funded spacecraft on the Moon. The company received a $1 million grant from Google earlier this year.

With regard to the dates of the commercial launches, Beck said that they will announce the completion of the test flight program. Likewise, they will also make further announcements once the test flight phase is completed.