Gabe Newell arranged for a titanium garden gnome to be sent into space aboard Rocket Lab’s latest Electron launch, reenacting the monumental task that originally brought the gnome to fame. Newell leveraged the renewed interest in the franchise after the release of the highly anticipated third installment in the Half-Life series, with 100% of the money going to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of Starship, a children’s hospital located in Auckland, New Zealand.
The billionaire founder of Valve, Newell has been living in New Zealand, a country that handled Covid extremely efficiently, since before the pandemic. Earlier this month, he announced that he would be teaming up with Weta Workshop, Starship, and Rocket Lab to send a real-world replica of the beloved gnome into space. Dubbed “Gnome Chompski” by fans, the gnome is the subject of Half-Life 2: Episode 2’s infamously difficult achievement “Little Rocket Man,” which requires players to carry the innocuous subject from the start of the game to a rocket ship near the end.
Newell pledged that for every person who watched the stream of the rocket’s launch, he would donate $1 to Starship. Yesterday, through his racing team The Heart of Racing, he announced that $286,092 would go to the children’s hospital. “What Gabe and The Heart of Racing Team have achieved with this initiative will make a difference in the lives of so many Kiwi kids and it has been an honor to be part of it,” said Peter Beck, CEO and founder of Rocket Lab. Newell has also discussed the possible relocation of Valve’s developers to New Zealand.
While the gnome is a fun homage, it also serves a functional purpose – to test a 3D printing technique for use in the future construction of spacecraft components. Unfortunately, this also means that the gnome will burn up upon its return to Earth.
For those who attempted the “Little Rocket Man” achievement, this might offer some catharsis. Most would not even think to carry the innocent gnome from game start to end, but for those achievement hunters who did, the cute little gnome is a cruel reminder. Carrying Chompski is a laborious task, in part due to his tendency to sometimes launch in a random direction at a high velocity. Chompski’s influence carries into other games such as the recently updated Left 4 Dead 2, where he appears similarly as an improvised melee weapon and the subject of an achievement.
Regardless of one’s reaction to looking at Chompski, the money is going to a good place. Rocket Lab calls the gnome’s ascent a “homage to the innovation and creativity of gamers worldwide,” and everyone is sure to be happy seeing such an iconic gaming figure launched into Earth’s orbit. For those not launched into space, a new achievement for Half Life and Left 4 Dead 2 has been added to Steam to commemorate the event.
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