Gabe Newell launches a garden gnome into space for charity.

Newell will donate $1 from each person who watches the gnome launch online (either live or within 24 hours of the launch) to the pediatric intensive care unit at Starship, a children's hospital in Auckland, New Zealand. has been in the country since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Valve, the reason Newell was in New Zealand in the first place was to visit his friends at Weta Workshop and Rocket Lab, who are helping with the launch; Weta manufactures the gnome, which is "manufactured from titanium and is a Half- Gnome Chompski was originally a garden gnome prop in Half-Life 2: Episode Two, and if we could carry him to the end of the game and launch him into space (a very difficult), he famously earned the achievement "Little Rocket Man."

Rocket Lab (which does commercial launches as well as US military work) will launch Chompski "as part of a rideshare mission" from Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. The launch will take place within 14 days of November 16 NZT, and Newell says Norm Chompski's chances of survival are "grim" because after putting 30 satellites into orbit, the rocket is designed to turn around and re-enter the atmosphere to burn up completely.7]

According to Rocket Lab, "The mission is a tribute to the innovation and creativity of gamers around the world, as well as to test and certify new 3D printing technologies that may be employed in future spacecraft components."

Since the pandemic began, says Valve, Newell "has called Auckland his temporary home and is looking for ways to help the economy and community that sheltered him (or at least has not yet kicked him out)." Newell wants the good people of New Zealand and the world leaders who live in New Zealand to know that his quirky philanthropic endeavors are mostly harmless and not an immediate threat to their way of life."

The launch timing can be tracked on the Rocket Lab website and will be live streamed.

Since it was revealed that they would be embarking on COVID-19 in New Zealand, Newell has been talking about the country and even suggested relocating others, presumably Valve employees, to the island Besides the Gnome announcement, Newell and friends " We Love Aotearoa" concert, which they are helping to organize, but this has now been postponed.