Ākonga reaching for the stars with Rocket Lab

Senior director communications, Morgan Bailey, standing in front of an Electron rocket at LC-1 explaining the launch process to students.

Can I become an astronaut? This is the question that Rocket Lab’s school space ambassadors get asked with every school visit, in-person or online.  

“There’s never been a New Zealand astronaut yet, but if you go hard on the STEM subjects, you could be the first,” previous ambassador Rose Swears liked to answer.  

“I think it’s important for students to know you don’t have to go to MIT or whatever, you don’t have to move to the US to be a rocket scientist; you can study at the University of Waikato and stay right here in New Zealand and do really amazing, world-class stuff,” she adds.  

Earlier this year, Rocket Lab reached a significant milestone with more than 20,000 students interacting with the company’s education programme.  

Aspects of the education programme include school visits, rocket factory tours, rocket clubs and STEM outreach events.  

The education programme is an essential arm of Rocket Lab as they aim to inspire and educate the next generation about space. Almost 300 schools and community organisations have participated in a Space Ambassador event.  

Gisborne Intermediate is one such school, where teacher Barry Huhu signed up to be a Space Ambassador himself, about two years ago.  

Since then, the school has had numerous Rocket Lab technicians come and talk, they’ve shared Milo and venison rolls with scientists from NASA and in April this year,  

75 students got to visit the Mahia spaceport; Launch Complex 1 at Onenui Station.  

“To have an exceptional, international space facility in our region is amazing; to be given the opportunity to explore and learn about what they do – priceless,” Barry says.  

“Because LC-1 is a busy operational site, school visits are rare, so these students are among a small group of folks worldwide to get up close to the launch pads. The students learned all about the Electron (rocket) and satellite integration, learned about specialised weather balloons and their role in the launch, and got up close to the launch mount.”  

Student Aubrey enjoyed her Rocket Lab visit and says it’s because of the chance to learn more about space and share this knowledge with her family.  

Students in front of the launch mount and strongback at LC-1.

Space and the curriculum  

Barry links learning about Rocket Lab to the curriculum in creative and innovative ways.  

For example, when there’s an upcoming rocket launch, his class has designed mission badges, learning about art and design principles. He’s taught CAD drawing elements, through his students making rockets and launch pads in Minecraft. There have been links to Matariki and discussions on how the space industry can help our environment here on Earth. And of course, the classic bottle rocket has been incorporated into science lessons.  

Further learning about space is encouraged through the school’s space cadet programme. In order to join the programme, students must apply, practising their formal writing.  

Vinzent is one such cadet.  

“I’ve been fascinated with rocket exploration for three years now. I’ve always dreamt of being an engineer for Rocket Lab when I’m older and I feel that this opportunity is what will get me into spacecraft and exploration,” he says.  

Barry says the technicians speak really well to ākonga, sharing a positive mindset.  

“One technician came to our school and talked about how when he mows the lawns, it’s going to be the best lawns he could ever mow. And when he makes tea, it will be the best cup of tea,” he says.  

In this way, students are learning not just about STEM topics, but they learn the importance of values such as motivation, passion and self-belief.  

“The Rocket Lab staff are great. They’re always saying to our students, send in your CVs, we’ll see you in 15 years,” says Barry.  

In an Ambassador’s shoes  

Students examining the launch mount and strongback at LC-1. This is the structure that raises the Electron rocket from a horizontal position to vertical in preparation for launch. It’s from this exact spot that Electron lifts-off.

While Rose worked as a propellant chemist at Rocket Lab in 2021 and 2022, she also volunteered as a Space Ambassador.  

She did virtual visits with schools around the country, and in-person visits at her home town and at Maramarua, near one of Rocket Lab’s test facilities.  

“Primary school students are the greatest, they’re not embarrassed to ask silly-sounding questions. There are no silly questions because space science is still so new and so weird that questions that sound a little silly, often have serious answers,” says Rose.  

“High schoolers are the greatest too, because they’re starting to understand this is a real thing that they can really do, and they can be crazy insightful with their discussions.”  

During her school visits, Rose would talk about her role and then save as much time as possible for a Q&A session.  

“Often the class would have been preparing for the visit for weeks, and have awesome questions they just had to get answered.”  

Inspiring the next generation of female scientists  

Around half of all students engaged in Rocket Lab’s STEM education activities were girls or identified as female.  

Rose explained when she was younger, she didn’t have many examples of the kinds of work women could do in STEM fields.  

“I had no idea ‘propellant scientist’ was even a thing that existed,” she says.  

“[As an ambassador], I wanted to be that kind of example or encouragement to the awesome young people who hopefully, I’ll have the privilege of working with in 10 or 20 years’ time.  

“They’re helping encourage our students to dream big, showing that yes, girls can do that job too,” she says.  

“Afterwards, our girls are saying, ‘I want to go to space, I want to be just like her’.”  

Community outreach  

Morgan says she answered many fantastic questions from students eager to learn more.

Earlier this year, FIBRE FALE and The Ōtara Youth  

Drop-in Hub visited Rocket Lab’s factory in Auckland.  

The goal was to encourage more young Pacific and Māori students into the space industry.  

About 30 young people from the hub got to meet with some of Rocket Labs’ own Pacific and Māori engineers, hearing about their personal journeys into the space universe.  

Youth Hub senior youth worker Gina Mahani says, “It was awesome to see the WOW on rangatahi faces when they met the Māori and Pacific panelists.  

“Even though some of our rangatahi don’t know a lot about engineering, it’s all about exposing them to new opportunities. So many of our shy rangatahi put up their hands for the Q&A, it was so cool to see.”

The dialogue didn’t just focus on engineering but also on opportunities in design, marketing and communications within the space industry.  

Student Manu was part of the tour and he says he had never heard of Rocket Lab before the opportunity to go and view their mahi in person.  

“It was so cool to see how a start-up had grown and accomplished so much in so little time,” he says.  

“I’ve always liked space and learning about SpaceX and NASA and how Elon Musk wants to go to Mars. It was really interesting to see that New Zealand has our own company and our own interest in space as well … We’re basically a part of the space race too.”  

Gisborne Intermediate has also had a visit from a current Rocket Lab technician who happened to be an ex-student.  

“It’s important that our tamariki are able to meet people who were Gisborne Intermediate students, who are Māori and who also dream big, just like them,” Barry says.  

Teachers should love space too  

Although the Space Ambassador programme has been paused for the remainder of the year, Rocket Lab is encouraging teachers to get involved in 2024.  

“[During my Ambassador role], I got to meet learners from all age groups, and the teachers were sometimes even more excited than their class,” Rose says.  

The company is currently expanding its education programme internationally to meet the demands, also encouraging space ambassador applicants from American schools.  

Barry says the Space Ambassador programme is a great way for “space geek” teachers to engage with Rocket Lab and provide a gateway to new opportunities for their students.  

“Rocket Lab is approachable and they are eager to get into schools. Once we’re underway again I would really recommend schools get involved. Even if it’s just a Skype call, the students get really excited,” he says.  

Barry is already excited for that green light. He hopes to be a Space Ambassador for as long as he can. He already jokes with his current students, saying, “Remember, when you are working at Rocket Lab one day, I’ll still be bringing my new students around to visit.”

Space and the curriculum  

The Ministry of Education is under way with refreshing the science and technology learning areas of the curriculum and this will be available to schools in 2024.  

As part of the kaupapa of Te Mātaiaho | the refreshed NZ curriculum, the content will be written with ‘pathways value’ in mind, which considers new and emerging careers such as those within organisations like Rocket Lab.  

The Science Learning Hub(external link) (SLH) has several articles, activities and interactives about Aotearoa in space, including a strong focus on local context and mātauranga Māori.

Mission badges used by students at Gisborne Intermediate School as part of learning about Rocket Lab and space.