New Zealanders are leading the charge as humanity prepares to return to the Moon.
Rocket Lab has nabbed a lucrative NASA contract to send a satellite into lunar orbit in 2021.
“The goal here is to basically be the pathfinder mission for the Artemis programme, which is the next big leap that NASA are doing to send women and men to the Moon, to prepare to go to Mars,” a Rocket Lab employee told Seven Sharp.
The $15.5 million rocket is being constructed in Auckland’s Mount Wellington.
“It’s every rocket scientists dream to be involved in either a lunar or interplanetary mission,” Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck says.
Mr Beck says this is the first time Rocket Lab will be sending one of its photon spacecraft into deep space.
The goal is to have another human on the Moon by 2024.
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