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Comment by HappyKasper | Hacker News Reader

Should be noted that while the article calls Rocket Lab a US firm operating in NZ, it's been an NZ firm since its first day, and only went to the US for funding.

Exciting news not only because it shows commercial spaceflight is becoming global, but because Rocket Lab has one of the most ambitious launch schedules out there.

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Yeah, It's officially a US firm with a NZ subsidiary.

But any project like this is a multinational effort - while all the engineering, design, manufacture, operations, etc. are in NZ there is nowhere near enough space expertise located here so the team itself is very multinational.

Question, doesnt ITAR prevent the team from being multinational?

I've done space projects with US companies and so am fully marinated in ITAR processes. In answer to your question: No, you can get around ITAR by just being careful about what information is imported and exported to and from the US. If there was a US engineering office and an NZ engineering office and all the engineering effort was evenly distributed among the two, it would be a nightmare as you'd be 'exporting US technology' constantly, but if all the important stuff is being done in NZ and very little know-how has to go back-and forth across the virtual border with the US then it's more manageable (still involves lawyers and experts though). It doesn't matter than the US owns it financially, it's the transfer of knowledge and stuff across the border (virtual and real) that is the hard bit. As this is basically a NZ company which had to do a paperwork fudge in order to accept US investment, ITAR is not such a problem.

Are all the engineers Non American citizens then? Wouldn't trying to hire American citizens also be a nightmare with ITAR?

I would assume most of their employees in NZ hold NZ citizenship although I'm unsure exactly how NZ handles ITAR.

They have engineers/technicians based in the US as well and I would assume most of those are US Persons (US Citizens or Permanent Residents). In the US you can get ITAR exemptions for non-US Persons but from my understanding it's a more difficult and much more expensive process so it is only done to recruit very high level talent.

I'm at SpaceX, which is a much larger company than Rocket Lab, and I can probably count on two hands the number of non-US Persons working here.

I'm fairly certain that Peter Beck, Rocket Lab's founder and CEO, who is a Kiwi, lives in Socal now.

While it's not exactly the same as ITAR, NZ already allows citizens of five eye countries to get security clearances without any ties to NZ.

So I would imagine that from NZs perspective it wouldn't be a big deal to let foreigners work on export controlled projects.

Why would the US want guys like Wernher von Braun working on our space projects?

Wondering, why was the "paperwork fudge" necessary? I guess because the U.S-N.Z. free trade agreement never happened?

>while all the engineering, design, manufacture, operations, etc. are in NZ

I'm not sure how Rocket Lab splits design/manufacturing but they just moved into an pretty sizable facility in Hungtington Beach, CA a few months ago and I know for a fact that they have engineers and technicians on staff there.

In any case it's great to see them progressing.

Turns out I was mistaken. If you look at their careers website (https://rocketlabusa.com/careers/positions/) it seems as though the engines are being designed and/or built in California and the rocket and software is being done in NZ.

I thought it was registered as a US firm for ITAR purposes. From their website.

> Rocket Lab is an American company with headquarters in Los Angeles and a wholly-owned New Zealand subsidiary.

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