Rocket Lab wins three medals from Royal Aeronautical Society

Rocket Lab has won three prestigious awards from the London-based Royal Aeronautical Society, including a gold medal for founder Peter Beck.

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Other gold medal winners include the Wright brothers, Sir Frank Whittle, an inventor of the jet engine and Space X's Elon Musk. It is awarded for work of an outstanding nature in aerospace.

The team gold award went to the developers of Rocket Lab's Rutherford Engine. That is awarded for outstanding contributions to aerospace art, science and engineering.

The engine uses batteries to power pumps instead of a gas generator and makes extensive use of 3-D printing of components.

Rocket Lab, founded in New Zealand with much of its operation still here, also won the Geoffrey Pardoe space award for its Electron rocket. This is a team award for a significant contribution to space.

The awards recognise and celebrate individuals and teams who have made an exceptional contribution to aerospace, whether it is for an outstanding achievement, a major technical innovation, exceptional leadership, or for work that will further advance aerospace.

The society traces its origins back to 1866 and has been honouring outstanding achievers in the global aerospace industry since 1909, when Wilbur and Orville Wright went to London to receive the first gold.

Beck said the awards were recognition for the staff of close to 300 people in New Zealand.

''I think one of the unique things is that they recognise the team, generally they recognise a person,'' he said.

''These are international awards - it's wonderful to win (any) awards but these ones stand at the top.''

Rocket Lab's Electron rocket reached orbit for the second time this year earlier this month. It deployed seven satellites in its first fully commercial launch.

Beck said the next Electron vehicle would go to the pad at Mahia later this week before tests and the fixing of a launch window. It was likely to be before Christmas.