Should NZ have looked ‘under the hood’ of $29m satellite?
Sunday, 6 July 2025
With New Zealand’s “first official space mission” having ended in failure when a satellite “went into safe mode” after being exposed to the sun, some are questioning: Did we invest in a $29m lemon?
Taxpayer funding for the MethaneSAT was justified with ambitious plans to monitor greenhouses gases from space, and the creation of academic opportunities and industry around it. Its lifespan was expected to be five years.
Yet, before the University of Auckland could take possession from the US Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) group, crews on the ground “lost contact” with the satellite amid “intense solar activity”.
On Wednesday, it was deemed “likely not recoverable”, and Kiwi scientists have expressed their deep disappointment.
“We didn’t build MethaneSat. However, there is a question of whether or not we should have taken a closer look ‘under the hood’ before investing,” says University of Auckland associate physics professor Nicholas Rattenbury.
“The principle of caveat emptor is true for spacecraft as much as it is for purchasing a car,” he says.
Rattenbury acknowledges that space is an “unforgiving environment” and that a spacecraft failure is perhaps “not surprising”.
“Space, as they say in the industry, is hard … [but] to what extent are we happy with the explanation that much information was veiled owing to confidentiality or commercial sensitivity?
“We as investors in the project are entitled to an explanation.”
RNZ reported this week that the NZ Space Agency had refused to release information about the satellite’s operational issues, while Space Minister Judith Collins declined to answer questions about its loss.
Physics professor Richard Easther, also of the University of Auckland, called it “a tragedy for New Zealand science”.
“I was excited when we got involved in 2019, but MethaneSAT was years late launching and kept pumping out upbeat comms even after it became clear that the spacecraft had major problems,” says Easther.
“Rocket Lab’s success creates a remarkable platform for New Zealand to do low-cost, globally significant space missions and our involvement with MethaneSAT has squandered that opportunity.”
Easther says a “no blame” review is needed to understand “how New Zealand blew past so many red flags” about the operation.
Although, he adds that “the opportunity is still there” for another mission.
“If the best time to start would have been 2019, the second best is tomorrow.”
University of Otago physics professor Craig Rodger, meanwhile, questions whether the state-of-the-art satellite ought to have been shut down by the sun.
“When satellite operators talk about ‘safe mode’, that’s usually in the context of impacts triggered by the satellite being bombarded by hot protons and hot electrons,” he explains.
“The thing that surprises me is that the space environment was relatively benign around June 20 when they lost contact … I’m not saying it was dead quiet, but it was sort-of background level conditions.”
He says that solar activity is similar to Earth’s weather and this was no Cyclone Gabrielle.
'Now, I've never designed a satellite, but I do watch the satellite environment … I have an idea what quiet looks like, what disturbed looks like, and what 'big arse holy crap' looks like.
“Conditions have not been really active, but MethaneSAT seems to be having a bad time for quite a while now.”
In a public statement, the EDF, which was responsible for the satellite, said its methane detecting instrumentation had “exceeded all expectations”, until it shut down.
“To solve the climate challenge requires bold action and risk-taking and this satellite was at the leading edge of science, technology and advocacy.”