{"id":522624,"date":"2026-07-12T18:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/522624\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T18:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:08:09","slug":"methanesat-review-launched-after-29m-nz-taxpayer-funded-mission-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/522624\/","title":{"rendered":"MethaneSAT review launched after $29m NZ taxpayer-funded mission failure"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Environmental Defence Fund (EDF) said it is now undertaking an independent review after concerns were raised to it. <\/p>\n

It expects the review to be completed in the last three months of this year. <\/p>\n

\"AnAn artist\u2019s rendering of the MethaneSAT satellite. Photo \/ Supplied, Environmental Defence Fund<\/p>\n

University of Auckland Professor of Physics Richard Easther said the EDF denied there were any issues with the spacecraft, when there was. <\/p>\n

In particular, he said the EDF claimed the spacecraft was working as expected, at a time when a lot of people knew it wasn\u2019t. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a sequence of red flags which need to be investigated about the amount of openness that they\u2019ve shown. <\/p>\n

\u201cTheir code of conduct is extremely strong, it says they\u2019ll be transparent, that they\u2019ll be honest and the question to them is whether they\u2019ve lived up to that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Easther said he also wasn\u2019t sure what value was actually delivered, including by the Mission Operations Control Centre (MOCC). <\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a consensus in the community that it was overbuilt, even for supporting the $100 million MethaneSAT mission.\u201d <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\"UniversityUniversity of Auckland Professor of Physics Richard Easther said the EDF denied there were any issues with the spacecraft, when there was. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n

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\u2019s integrity. <\/p>\n

\u201cDifferent people can have different views faced with the same set of facts. You know, technical judgments are complex things, to reach, but we\u2019re confident that EDF has always been truthful with us, in their dealings.\u201d <\/p>\n

Johnson said they learned a lot from the mission. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen some of the challenges that were being encountered maybe rightly raised questions in the community, there\u2019s a bit of frustration that we couldn\u2019t be as candid as we might have liked.\u201d <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\"NewNew Zealand Space Agency deputy head Andrew Johnson said they learned a lot from the mission.<\/p>\n

He said establishing the Mission Operation Control Centre has been one of the positives to come out of the mission. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Auckland University\u2019s own TPA1 satellite is currently being operated from the MOCC, which is fantastic. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result of the minister\u2019s recent announcements on the KiwiSpace activator, we understand it\u2019ll be TPA 2 will also be launched and operated out of the MOCC.\u201d <\/p>\n

Johnson said he hoped it would encourage people to partner with New Zealand on scientific and commercial opportunities in the future. <\/p>\n

\"SpaceSpace Minister Chris Penk said he doesn\u2019t believe another government review is warranted. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

Space Minister Chris Penk said the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment released a report into the mission in November and he doesn\u2019t believe another government review is warranted. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision by MBIE to rely on MethaneSAT LLC\u2019s design, procurement, and risk management processes as outlined in the review was assessed as reasonable by an independent space mission expert. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Environmental Defence Fund (EDF) said it is now undertaking an independent review after concerns were raised to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[100521,74,4057,12513,42343,738,10118,1019,1743,4479,90456,1132,7239,111,43,139,26328,69,3263,19764,762,4029,146265,93483,1361,80],"class_list":["post-522624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-29m","tag-after","tag-behind","tag-failed","tag-failure","tag-funding","tag-internal","tag-international","tag-launched","tag-launching","tag-methanesat","tag-million","tag-mission","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nonprofit","tag-nz","tag-project","tag-received","tag-review","tag-satellite","tag-taxpayer","tag-taxpayerfunded","tag-that","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}