Exclusive details emerge in Auckland council’s billion-dollar deal with the Government, Mama Hooch rapists face sentencing and India make space history. Video / NZ Herald / AP Video / Telegram Wagner
India’s first moon landing included technology from Auckland-based Rakon.
And the NZX-listed firm tells the Herald the historic lunar landing has helped open up a $250 million opportunity.
Rakon said it was “incredibly proud to have several of our cutting-edge products on board Chandrayaan-3′s lunar lander ‘Vikram’ androver ‘Pragyan’”.
After a failed attempt to land on the moon in 2019, India now joins the United States, the Soviet Union and China as only the fourth country to achieve this milestone.
It was also the first landing at the lunar south pole.
“Contract details are commercially sensitive, but I can say it is a significant contract for Rakon,” a spokesman said.
“In terms of work it could lead to, we have an ongoing partnership with ISRO [India’s equivalent to Nasa, the Indian Space Research Oganisation] and are currently developing products for upcoming ISRO programmes including Aditya L1, a mission to study solar atmosphere, and Gaganyaan (part of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme).”
The spokesman added, “Rakon’s development and expansion of our space product portfolio into higher-value subsystems and equipment has tripled our available opportunities to an estimated $250m.”
Journalists film the live telecast of spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 landing on the moon at ISRO's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network facility in Bengaluru, India. India has landed a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole, an uncharted territory that scientists believe could hold vital reserves of frozen water and precious elements, as the country cements its growing prowess in space and technology. Photo / AP
Rakon opened a new 100,000-square-foot factory at the SEZ (Special Economic Zone) Aerospace Park in Bangalore (officially known as Bengaluru) in June - helping it expand a years-long partnership with ISRO, which is based in the facility.
The firm spent $15m on the new manufacturing centre, with a further $55m due to be invested over the next five years.
Rakon currently employs around 500 people in India and expects to add another 300 over the next five years.
The firm has around 1000 staff in today, including around 350 in NZ, with most of the balance in France and the US.
While it’s the first time Rakon’s oscillating crystals - which help components such as navigation systems keep the same “electronic heartbeat”, helping them to synchronise communications - have been to the moon, it’s not the Kiwi technology’s first jaunt to another body in our solar system.
Rakon’s crystals also featured in Nasa’s Perseverance rover, which touched down on Mars in 2020.
In May, Rakon reported space and defence up 18 per cent to $28.9m (overall revenue was up 5 per cent to $180m, with sales to telco network makers the largest segment, accounting for more than $100m).
Some space programmes are still out of the Auckland firm’s orbit.
Was there any Rakon hardware on the Russian craft that crashed into the moon on August 21?
“We had no involvement,” the spokesman said.
Investors failed to catch fever - at least today - with Rakon’s shares trading flat.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
