A planned payload by the Space company, Rocket Lab, has upset the Peace Foundation, which has written an open letter to the Prime Minister, asking for launches that include military payloads to be suspended.
The Gunsmoke-J payload is due for launch on March 15 - there are concerns it could breach nuclear-free legislation. Rocket Lab says the payload is a small test satellite designed to test communication technologies for a division of the US Army.
Professor Kevin Clements, Emeritus Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago, and director of the Toda Peace Institute in Japan, outlines the Peace Foundation's concerns.
Photo: AFP PHOTO /ROCKET LAB/KIERNAN FANNING AND SIMON MOFFATT
