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The National Aerospace Centre's new policy on what to launch into space would say yes to the New Zealand Defence Force but think hard about any request from, say, the Pentagon to put a satellite up.
Tāwhaki is finalising its thinking on who it would partner with amid a global space business boom - but some want hard and fast lines drawn.
The Crown-iwi joint venture's chief executive John Holt said it was on track to get both offshore investors to build a new spaceport at Kaitorete Spit just south of Christchurch - plus the customers to follow.
Dual use technology is dominating the enormous launch market it wants to tap; say, where a satellite that takes images for land management is also used to spot troop movements in the Ukraine war.
Tāwhaki's had to get ahead of it with new litmus test questions in its dual use policy.
"Who is this launch company? What are their credentials? Are their values aligned?" said Holt.
"And then ... what are the things that you're going to be launching? And of course, that dovetails into space law in New Zealand in terms of payload disclosures."
The dual use policy will apply not just to future rocket business but Tāwhaki's existing use for high-altitude plane and other aerospace testing.
If a customer came along who had both commercial and defence divisions that would prompt extra questions.
Holt said the wider whānau had told them it was comfortable with launches by the New Zealand Defence Force for sovereign purposes, particularly if it were for national security; weaponry or targeting others they were less comfortable with, he said.
And what if the Pentagon came calling?
"Dual-use policy would be taken to the board, which has a Crown view at 50 percent and a rūnanga view at 50 percent.
That wouldn't wash with two Wairewa rūnanga members Wiki Martin and Dr Alvina Edwards.
Edwards said they backed Tāwhaki on science and civilian business but planned to call for a hard and fast line against any militarisation or weaponisation at a regular rūnanga meeting this weekend.
"Absolutely anything that has been put up, created ... anything that is on defence," she said. "We just have to make a stand that we cannot do that."
Reports of satellite imagery being used in the Gaza war galvanised her.
"It's grounded in Kaupapa Māori governance ... and solidarity or sovereign rights with indigenous peoples that are affected by militarised technology. And that example is anything like satellites that's actually being provided for information."
It was time for more information and debate about what was not okay on their ancestral land at Kaitorete Spit according to their and Te Tiriti values, Edwards said.
The information flow, though, had been complicated by the space portfolio going to a new minister, Paul Goldsmith, after Chris Penk's resignation, and also Tāwhaki's negotiations still going on with the Crown.
A Wairewa rūnanga chair and rep on Tāwhaki's board Dr Matiu Prebble said it was being open and members did have a say.
"Part of that dual use policy is around helping us to form a collective opinion about whether a particular company is likely to share our values."
He wouldn't talk about excluding this or that launch but added kinetics - jargon for space weaponry - wouldn't go down well.
"I can tell you now that any kind of kinetic use of technology will not be supported by our runanga.
"But whether that's a line in the sand or not, that's a different thing. We need to treat each company and their technology on a case by case basis."
It, the other rūnanga Te Taumutu and the Crown must set out to learn about the tech, Prebble said.
"This is where I guess it gets quite challenging."
At the start of a launch partnership it would need to very clearly define the use of the tech. "But we can't then hold on once that company ... might go on to use that technology in different ways."
The dual use policy - if the Crown accepted it as was - allowed the joint venture to hit pause or suspend launches.
Holt conceded this enters a grey zone.
"It is a grey zone, and we would be relying on the assertions and original intentions of users. And that's why we recognise also [with] different geopolitical and changes in the world, those scenarios will change."
The policy gave it much more detail to think about.
"Really what it says is we support sovereign defence capabilities and national security in terms of New Zealand, global democracy with regards to human rights, security, stability, and peace, and rangatiratanga, which is the self-determination, which is so important to our hapū shareholders and their rūnanga."
The joint venture also had a dual purpose, to restore the natural environment of the spit.
Space, however, was a unique business to be in, where national security pressures were now combining with market forces to push for ever more speed - for more rapid launches that took months or even just weeks from order to blastoff.
But if Tāwhaki wants to reserve the right of review, won't that just slow it down?
Stan Topping, head of aerospace at Tāwhaki, didn't think so.
"It does quite the opposite because it gives people very clear expectations upfront because nobody likes surprises."
Topping described the layers of checks under the new policy as Swiss-cheese style, where any gaps were covered for.
Holt said what the future looked like around militarisation was "the big problem" - but they know what their whānau want.
