Air & Space Law expertise

On 21 January 2018, US company Rocket Lab made New Zealand the world’s first country to launch satellites from a private launch pad. Since that time, New Zealand has seen a number of launches from the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand’s Hawke’s Bay region. Lead by New Zealander Peter Beck, Rocket Lab has helped drive down the cost of launching satellites, opening it up to smaller enterprises. At the same time, Peter and the team have shown that Kiwi ingenuity is well and truly alive.

Closer to the ground, Richard Pearse arguably beat the Wright brothers to powered flight, and New Zealand has not looked back since.

New Zealand’s involvement in the air and space industries continues to grow, as New Zealand looks to capitalise on gains already made. At the more public end is work by Mark Rocket on solar powered planes used for topographical photography, and Google’s Project Loom. Less publicly known is the work of hundreds of companies working within these industries, too numerous to mention, but including working with the use of drone technologies in agriculture and magnetic fields to propel satellites.

Air and space are two rapidly growing, and intrinsically connected, industries. However, they are also two industries that are vastly different in their application of law. They require a knowledge of both local law but also an understanding of multilateral agreements and, for space, government involvement, the application of UN conventions and more recent agreements outside of the UN.

Stace Hammond has staff with the knowledge and experience to help you operate within these industries.