Entrepreneur Mark Rocket makes history as first Kiwi in space on Blue Origin flight
An aerospace entrepreneur who legally changed his surname to Rocket has become the first Kiwi in space, blasting off aboard Blue Origin's New Shepherd NS-32 mission in West Texas early yesterday (NZT).
Christchurch's Mark Rocket, five fellow space tourists and a New Zealand flag reached an altitude of 105km, taking
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Otago Daily Times
2 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Drones can be worker bees too
My Oxford Dictionary is way out of date because the subject I would have a look at this week is the modern drone so when I went to my dictionary for its definition it stated "male or non- worker bee", that's all. While I find the drone bee an interesting insect as they only make up about 1-2% of a hive of 50,000 female worker bees or more who collect the pollen and nectar, protect the hive and raise a new queen and when the time is right she flies out of the hive to mate with several drones. It seems to be their sole purpose in the hive's life cycle is its procreation. However, when I went to Google there was no mention of the bee and its definition of a drone is an "unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV) can be controlled remotely or fly autonomously". Essentially, it is a flying robot capable of carrying a payload for various tasks. While the concept has been around for decades its only in the 10 years or so that they've come into prominence. The United States army's stealth drone was designed to evade detection and used for intelligence-gathering, reconnaissance and potentially combat operations. I think the modern drone has been given the wrong name because they are workers. The first one I was familiar with was a glorified toy and could be bought for a few dollars a but now they are capable of lifting over 1000kg. In the last few years different businesses, organisations and government departments are finding more and more uses, such as traffic monitoring, aerial photography, surveying and police crowd surveillance. But the drone is also revolutionising agriculture as Kiwi ingenuity makes them bigger and adapts them to perform tasks once restricted to helicopters or fixed winged planes. On the farm, Cameron engaged a company with drones to spray gorse in a couple of steep gullies. The drone carried 50 litres of chemical, calibrated to be of the strength and volume if it was sprayed by a helicopter, and was cheaper. Three months on, the gorse is not healthy, but 12 months on will tell the full story. Small ones can be used for stock handling. Will every farmer have one, if they prove to be cost-effective? They can perform tasks like spraying crops, spreading fertilisers and insecticides, sowing seeds on steep country, pest control and even firefighting. There are rules, regulations, training and costs regarding bigger drones that pilots must adhere to.
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Christchurch entrepreneur becomes the first New Zealander in space
Christchurch entrepreneur Mark Rocket has become the first New Zealander to make it into space. Rocket made history on board the 12th crewed flight for Blue Origin's New Shepard programme in West Texas. Rocket told The Press the flight exceeded his expectations. "It was incredibly intense," he told The Press. "Just a really amazing space flight." With a New Zealand flag in hand, Rocket and five others levelled off 105km above the Earth, where they experienced zero gravity for 11 minutes. Blue Origin's New Shepard programme is run by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' space tourism company. Mark Rocket out of his seat during the sub-orbital flight on Blue Origin's NS-32 mission. Photo: Blue Origin Rocket told The Press he experienced "fairly steady acceleration" after lift-off. But once they reached "3400km/h, the acceleration is just absolutely incredible". When the main engine cut off and the booster separated from the rocket, the crew experienced zero gravity. He said a highlight was doing flips in mid-air in the true darkness of space. "It was just a totally immersive, full-on, thrilling experience," Rocket told The Press. "So I did another backflip and jumped into the seat and within a minute you're doing quite a few Gs and it goes up to about 5Gs." -APL
NZ Herald
4 days ago
- NZ Herald
Entrepreneur Mark Rocket makes history as first Kiwi in space on Blue Origin flight
An aerospace entrepreneur who legally changed his surname to Rocket has become the first Kiwi in space, blasting off aboard Blue Origin's New Shepherd NS-32 mission in West Texas early yesterday (NZT). Christchurch's Mark Rocket, five fellow space tourists and a New Zealand flag reached an altitude of 105km, taking
