NZ Space Agency silent on MethaneSAT satellite handover delay

By Eloise Gibson of RNZ

The New Zealand Space Agency has refused to answer questions about delays to a key milestone in a multimillion-dollar project involving a methane-tracking satellite.

Auckland University staff and students were expected to be handed the reins to a NZ taxpayer-funded, US-owned satellite last year, but the handover has not happened and the NZ Space Agency says it can not confirm why, citing commercial sensitivity and confidentiality.

It says it hopes to be able to provide an update in two weeks on what it calls the next stage of the MethaneSAT mission.

The satellite was launched from the United States in March 2024 as part of a climate change-fighting effort to detect and shut down rogue sources of the potent planet-heating gas methane.

The project is the brainchild of the non-profit American green group the Environmental Defence Fund, which tapped the New Zealand Government for a nearly $30 million contribution towards the mission control and related research.

In October, the Space Agency told RNZ that the satellite’s mission control was on track to be handed to Auckland University before the end of 2024.

Students at Auckland University are expecting hands-on involvement in handling the data it sends back to Earth and supervised experience driving the satellite.

The NZ Space Agency can not say why control of a a NZ taxpayer-funded, US-owned satellite has not been handed over to Auckland University staff and students. Photo / Environmental Defence Fund

NZ-based space company Rocket Lab has run the mission control out of Auckland since June.

The NZ Space Agency sits inside the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and is responsible for the government’s $29m investment in the mission, which was intended to build the local space industry, including the upskilling of university students.

Asked last week why the handover had not happened, the agency cited clauses in the Official Information Act preventing the release of sensitive and confidential information.

The space agency had already refused to release substantive information about any internal discussions about issues with operating the satellite to RNZ under the Official Information Act.

What little was released shows urgent discussions took place with Rocket Lab about staffing levels for operating the satellite, and University of Auckland made a request for more money to cover its own staffing on the project.

The New Zealand Government is the only one involved with MethaneSAT, whose other major backers are wealthy private philanthropic groups: billionaire Jeff Bezos' charity Earth Fund and The Audacious Project (an offshoot of the TED network).

On October 21, 2024, RNZ sent the space agency a request under the Official Information Act for “any correspondence regarding issues commissioning or operating the MethaneSAT satellite” during the months of August, September and October 2024.

The agency took 40 working days to prepare its response.

It sent nine attachments over a series of emails, each containing about 60 pages of discussions between MethaneSAT, the Space Agency and Rocket Lab.

Almost all substantive discussions in the bodies of the 500-odd pages of emails were redacted, leaving mostly isolated salutations and sign-offs such as “Kia Ora Steve”, “Thanks Chris” and “best, Andrew”.

The few surviving passages indicate urgent discussions about updates to staffing levels at Rocket Lab, as well as discussions with the university about increasing the funding it received for the project, and reveal a discussion about how to reply to RNZ’s questions about apparent delays to the satellite’s data stream in September 2024.

Everything else was deemed to be commercially sensitive, or provided in confidence in circumstances where it would not be in the public interest to release it, or was said to contain “free and frank” advice so sensitive that releasing it might jeopardize future provision of advice to the government.

RNZ also asked the University of Auckland and Rocket Lab yesterday why the mission control was not handed from Rocket Lab to the university by the end of 2024 as expected.

They each declined to comment and referred RNZ back to the space agency, saying it was the appropriate avenue for questions, as the lead agency in charge of New Zealand’s MethaneSAT involvement.

Investing in the mission was first pitched to the New Zealand government in 2018.

As is common with space missions, it took longer than expected to get off the ground.

Hands-on experience driving the satellite and processing its data for up-and-coming space and science workers was one of the major justifications for taxpayer investment in the project, after it emerged during early discussions that the satellite would likely be unable to provide the New Zealand government with new information about the quantities of methane coming from New Zealand farms. The satellite is mainly aimed at oil and gas fields, which unlike farming are a tiny portion of New Zealand’s emissions.

When it launched almost a year ago, the goal was capturing measurements from 80 percent of the world’s oil and gas production each year, filling a gap between broader-view and more narrowly-focussed methane satellites.

New Zealand researchers at NIWA also won $6m of government funding, for developing ways to use the satellite to measure agricultural emissions. They plan to test what satellite measures from space over major New Zealand farming regions against the country’s existing good-quality estimates, based on factors such as stock numbers, and ground-based air measurements taken from areas such as Waikato.

Scientists initially hoped MethaneSAT would be publishing some data in the second half of last year. In October the satellite’s owners said a full stream of data was expected in early 2025 when the satellite would be fully operational.

MethaneSAT published early observations of major oil fields in the United States, Turkmenistan and Venezuela in November.

The full data flow has not yet appeared on the satellite’s public platform.

When asked about any problems or delays in delivering data in October, MethaneSAT said the process had taken longer than hoped but there were no “notable or particular complications beyond what would be expected”.

“There is a lot of new technology on this mission, both hardware and software,” it said at the time.

“For instance, commissioning our thrusters went slower than planned because they are a new model and the vendor was modifying their checkout procedure for us as we were going along.”

MethaneSAT added that, as of October, “there are no issues with the satellite or its data collection performance”.

At that time both the space agency and NIWA declined to comment on any delays, or even confirm if they were aware of any delays, referring RNZ to MethaneSAT’s US headquarters.

Last week, RNZ asked the Space Agency directly:

• Why officials and RocketLab had been discussing staffing levels for managing the satellite.
• Why mission control had not been handed to Auckland University before the end of last year as it had previously expected, and whether the space agency could confirm that the mission control would definitely be handed to the University.
• Whether rumours in the science community of persistent problems with the satellite since launch were true.
• If there were persistent problems, whether the space agency was aware of this when MBIE, NIWA and MethaneSAT discussed how to respond to RNZ’s media query late last year.
• Whether the space agency was satisfied with the accuracy of MethaneSAT’s response to RNZ, that as of October: “There are no issues with the satellite or its data collection performance.”
• Whether the space agency had raised concerns with MethaneSAT about delivery of the project.

The space agency responded on Friday that it was unable to answer those questions, again citing the reasons behind its refusal to release the emails.

“We hope to update you on the next phase on MethaneSAT in the next couple of weeks. Until this time, we are unable to comment further and refer you to withholding criteria listed in the OIA response,” it said.

“As you’ll be aware, New Zealand’s ongoing participation in the MethaneSAT mission is building important capability in our space sector, enabling New Zealand researchers to work with world-leading atmospheric scientists and making an important contribution to slowing global warming.”

Rocket Lab’s contract to operate the mission control ends on February 28.

Auckland has been pitched as the first university in New Zealand to operate a satellite.

- RNZ

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