Rocket Lab says locals have nothing to fear from the nine staff given essential worker exemptions to travel Mahia from Auckland for its launch later this week.
Some in the Mahia community say the risk presented by Rocket Lab staff's arrival is unacceptable.
"We have whānau desperate to be by one another and those tyrants get to do as they please," Mahia resident Puti Moa (Ngāti Rongomaiwahine) said in a statement released by advocacy group Auckland Peace Action.
The workers have been granted exemption passes as essential workers to assist as launch operators for the first of two missions running from November 11 to November 24, according to a Rocket Lab spokeswoman.
"If we launch on day one, then they can go home earlier. If it takes longer into that two-week window, then they will stay until that launch is complete."