MethaneSAT review launched after $29m NZ taxpayer-funded mission failure
The international non-profit behind a failed satellite project that received $29 million in New Zealand taxpayer funding is launching a review.
MethaneSAT - a collaboration with the United States-based Environmental Defence Fund - lost contact with the ground in June last year and is believed to be unrecoverable.
New Zealand joined the mission in 2019, hoping to boost science, track farm emissions and grow our space sector.
The mission faced delays, first to its launch date and then to the arrival of its promised data about global methane emissions.
Documents released to Newstalk ZB under the Official Information Act suggest conflicting information about issues with the mission were provided to the minister and the media.
The Environmental Defence Fund (EDF) said it is now undertaking a review after concerns were raised to it.
It expects the review to be completed in the last three months of this year.
An artist’s rendering of the MethaneSAT satellite. Photo / Supplied, Environmental Defence Fund
University of Auckland Professor of Physics Richard Easther said the EDF denied there were any issues with the spacecraft, when there was.
In particular, he said the EDF claimed the spacecraft was working as expected, at a time when a lot of people knew it wasn’t.
“There’s a sequence of red flags which need to be investigated about the amount of openness that they’ve shown.
“Their code of conduct is extremely strong, it says they’ll be transparent, that they’ll be honest and the question to them is whether they’ve lived up to that.”
Easther said he also wasn’t sure what value was actually delivered, including by the Mission Operations Control Centre (MOCC).
“I think there’s a consensus in the community that it was overbuilt, even for supporting the $100 million MethaneSAT mission.”
Easther said the money spent could pay the fees for about 1000 post-graduate students, and taxpayers deserved to know if there was an actual educational value.
University of Auckland Professor of Physics Richard Easther said the EDF denied there were any issues with the spacecraft, when there was. Photo / Michael Craig
New Zealand Space Agency deputy head Andrew Johnson said the EDF was the clear public face of the mission and nothing the agency had heard has caused them to doubt the EDF’s integrity.
“Different people can have different views faced with the same set of facts. You know, technical judgments are complex things, to reach, but we’re confident that EDF has always been truthful with us, in their dealings.”
Johnson said they learned a lot from the mission.
“When some of the challenges that were being encountered maybe rightly raised questions in the community, there’s a bit of frustration that we couldn’t be as candid as we might have liked.”
Johnson said there were always trade-offs when joining a mission like this, and New Zealand would need 10 times the funding to have run a mission of this complexity on its own.
New Zealand Space Agency deputy head Andrew Johnson said they learned a lot from the mission.
He said establishing the Mission Operation Control Centre has been one of the positives to come out of the mission.
“The Auckland University’s own TPA1 satellite is currently being operated from the MOCC, which is fantastic.
“As a result of the minister’s recent announcements on the KiwiSpace activator, we understand it’ll be TPA 2 will also be launched and operated out of the MOCC.”
Johnson said he hoped it would encourage people to partner with New Zealand on scientific and commercial opportunities in the future.
Space Minister Chris Penk said he doesn’t believe another government review is warranted. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Space Minister Chris Penk said the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment released a report into the mission in November and he doesn’t believe another government review is warranted.
“The decision by MBIE to rely on MethaneSAT LLC’s design, procurement, and risk management processes as outlined in the review was assessed as reasonable by an independent space mission expert.
“The review found there were areas that could be improved for future missions, in relation to public communications and setting clear public expectations for high-profile space investments.”
Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson Ella Dickson said the Auditor-General needed to carry out a separate investigation.
“When $29 million of taxpayer funding is literally lost in space, taxpayers deserve a genuinely independent investigation.”
“Reports that serious technical concerns were not communicated before launch raise questions about what officials knew, what due diligence was carried out, and why taxpayers were exposed to such a high-risk project.”
“The Auditor-General Grant Taylor must establish what went wrong, whether the risks were properly disclosed, and who is accountable for this loss.”
Lachlan Rennie is an Auckland-based multimedia journalist for Newstalk ZB covering science, defence, technology, community issues and general news. He previously studied journalism at the New Zealand Broadcasting School before joining NZME in 2024.
