> "I don’t think RocketLab had plans to ever commercially launch rockets out of NZ."

Not only do they have plans to, they have already launched multiple commercial missions on their Electron rocket from NZ!

> "Its latitude is really not optimal for anything other than polar orbits"

I don't think latitude is the major reason. Rocket Lab's Ahuriri Point launch site is at about 39.2 deg S, not that much different to the Wallops Island, Virginia site at 37.8 deg N. Baikonur Cosmodrome, by comparison, is at 46 deg N!

> "it’s too far from any potential customers which would increase the cost considerably."

Yeah, this is the real issue.

It seems to me that if you’re spending millions of dollars on a satellite launch, the cost of shipping your satellite to New Zealand is tiny in comparison.

I think the concern is the possibility of damage in transit. I think most of the ESA & NASA's scientific missions effectively get final assembly on site, followed by a pre-launch check, then clearance to be placed in the final stage's payload chamber.

The Ariane 5 launches from South America. The rocket and the payload are shipped from Europe to French Guiana.

Yeah, but that's because there isn't a suitable launch site in France or elsewhere on the European continent. Rocket Lab do have launch sites in the USA, so why go to all the trouble of shipping everything to New Zealand?

I'm reasonably certain the Ariane rockets are not shipped in final form to South America: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Rosett...

Their current rocket is a smallsat launcher, it isn't that expensive.

Rocket Lab charges $7 million per launch. It’s way cheaper than the $60 million launch price of a falcon 9, but it’s still millions of dollars.

Polar orbit is actually what small sats are launched to most often.

And the distance doesn't really matter much. Its not that expensive.

The reason to go the the US, is US military launch more then anything else.