According to Deloitte, in 2018 and 2019 New Zealand’s space industry has contributed $1.7 billion to the economy. The country’s space industry is a growing and successful space (no pun intended) and Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom Founder and CEO of SpaceBase tells us why New Zealand is perfect for this activity.
“New Zealand is actually punching above its weight in terms of what it’s doing in the space industry globally,” says Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom.
Founder and CEO of SpaceBase, a consultancy focused on democratising access to space, Paat-Dahlstrom has nearly over two decades of experience in the industry across Philippines, New Zealand and essentially the leader of the space race, the US.
Working in Silicon Valley, the International Space University and much more, Paat-Dahlstrom decided to move from the biggest leader in the space industry, the US to come to New Zealand and nurture the one here.
“We thought that because New Zealand has a lot of the elements that you need to create a sustainable space industry, we thought that if we can actually do it here and create that, the lessons learned for enabling a space ecosystem, then we can actually share it to the rest of the world,” she says.
Paat-Dahlstrom came at a time when the New Zealand Space Agency was only six months old and RocketLab wasn’t even a thing.
Since then, it has grown in the span of six years, to being at the forefront of the global space industry.
While NASA was first created in response to the Cold War’s space race, with the Soviet Union first launching their first satellite, Sputnik I, New Zealand’s space industry was born out of less trying circumstances.
“The New Zealand Space Agency is actually quite unique because it got started because of the need of a business entity, which of course is Rocket Lab, to be able to launch from here,” explains Paat Dahlstrom.
“That’s kind of the genesis of why the New Zealand Space Agency got created as opposed to NASA or the European Space Agency or any other country where the motivations were more government driven and policy driven.”
And though the New Zealand Space Agency was created because RocketLab needed it, it has since “catalysed the industry” to become an industry that focuses on sustainability and making a healthy earth. A purpose unlike any other space industry in the world.
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“[New Zealand] has gravitated to using space for the good of planet Earth,” she says.
Looking at the New Zealand space industry, RocketLab and Dawn Aerospace are working on creating reusable rockets and planes, Aspiring Materials is focusing on creating landing pads on the moon that don’t spread debris, and Leo Labs, an American company with a satellite based in the South Island, detects debris in space.
“A common thread between those that we’ve seen so far is actually this focus on sustainability and basically helping with making sure that we have a sustainable environment and a healthy earth,” she adds.
Already, New Zealand is quickly becoming known for creating a sustainable space industry.
“Everybody’s looking at New Zealand for all of the things that’s happening here that are actually in the forefront,” adds Paat-Dahlstrom.
“New Zealand is definitely doing a lot of things that the whole world is taking notice of, especially in the global space community.”
Paat-Dahlstrom adds that New Zealand is the perfect place location-wise, to grow and nurture a space industry to become one of the big guns.
Though we often talk about New Zealand being isolated from the rest of the world being a negative, when it comes to being a space industry, it has become a positive.
“It’s very conducive to launching from here because there’s nothing,” she explains.
When looking at Cape Kennedy, Florida, air traffic has to be stopped for them to launch something, whereas New Zealand is an ideal location for launches to happen every day.
“The other thing is that of course now with Rocket Lab, there’s an existing infrastructure, there’s two launchpads, and actually New Zealand is the very first country where orbital launches have been launched from private launch pads,” she adds.
Paired with New Zealand’s attitude for innovation, ingenuity and embracing risk, Paat-Dahlstrom says the country’s space industry has the legs to grow even more.
“If you put all of that together, it certainly helps create a good ecosystem. We can describe Kiwis as pretty daring, where they know that something is actually almost impossible, but they’ll do it anyway. So that’s one that really lends well to the space industry because the space industry is by nature very risky.”
