Nothing strange about the US flag on the tail of the rocket: https://www.rocketlabusa.com/assets/Uploads/Rocket-Lab-Still-Testing-launch-21-January-2018.jpg
So what? Its tiny and sits at the very bottom of the the rocket. It represents American involvement. There is a Silver Fern flag in the same place on the other side of the rocket.
Do NZ merchant ships use a fern or a national flag?
Yes they do... They also fly the "red duster" (the NZ Red Ensign). That is a requirement of International Marine Law. A flag is meant to be identified easily at sea. The problem with the use of black on a flag is it gets really difficult to discern in a dimly lit area where a flag begins and ends. The dark blue of the NZ flag also present that problem which is why the red and white ensigns are used. However, NZ Merchant ships DO fly silver fern flags as well
SpaceX may have put the Bulgarian flag on the patch, but the actual rocket carried a US flag and a Bulgariasat company logo.
You insisted that the flag on the mission patch denotes the country that launched itt.. Now you insist that it doesn't. Its the old switcheroo, a technique right out of the CT playbook. Please make up your mind.
And from someone who should know:
Rocket Lab, like Beck himself, did originate in New Zealand. Only after the Electron program began did it become a U.S. company with a New Zealand subsidiary.
And that subsidiary means that its partly a NZ Company, in exactly the same way that Vauxhall is a British car maker, a subsidiary of General Motors, an American car maker; in exactly the same way that Holden is an Australian car maker, a subsidiary of General Motors, an American car maker; in the same way that Intel, an American manufacturer of computer IC's is actually based in the Republic of Ireland.
This launch least partly a NZ launch, and that is sufficient to make NZ the 11th country to launch an orbital class rocket, like it or lump it.
“We had secured significant Silicon Valley capital, and it doesn’t make sense to build value like that in a New Zealand company,” Beck explained. “And the launch vehicle is a U.S. launch vehicle, so there’s a lot of legal reasons why we need to be a U.S. company as well.”
http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/missions/commercial/rocket-lab-electron-rutherford-peter-beck-started-first-place/
All very interesting, and all meaningless. Vauxhall had HUGE financial input from Detroit, as did Holden. It doesn't make the Vauxhall Corsa, Astra, Mokka, Insignia, Zafira or Crossland, or the Holden Commodore, Calais or Monaro American cars.
General Electric and Motorola... two iconic American Brands, right... BZZZT Wrong. They are wholly owned by Chinese investors, yet no-one claims that the over 33,000 GE Engines in Civilian and Military aircraft such as the Boeing 787, 777, are Chinese. No-one claims that the range of domestic and commercial products that these companies sell are Chinese.
International investment is the commercial reality that all companies face, especially ones in countries as small as this one. None of what you have argued makes any difference to the fact the world recognises this as a New Zealand launch.
Finally, I really don't understand why you need to be such a contrarian. For some reason, the very idea that a small country like mine has achieved this seems to really chap your arse. Perhaps its because the British government pulled the plug on your efforts. Who knows?
On this forum, we are ALL space enthusiasts (at least, I hope we are, otherwise, why are we even here?). Another country getting into space should be an achievement that is celebrated by all of us. We should have been celebrating innovations such as 3D printed engines, and battery powered electric turbopumps; both firsts in an orbital class rocket. Instead, the thread has been derailed by a killjoy into a pointless argument about who launched the rocket. If I had known that I would need to defend our achievement against a contrarian who seems to have a burr up his backside about something, I would not have bothered even mentioning the launch in the first place.
I shall have to be very, very careful in future what I post here... and that saddens me.
