The New Zealand Space Agency was formed in April 2016 under the country's
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. The aim of the agency is to promote the development of a space industry in New Zealand and to reap its economic benefits, and to regulate the country's growing commercial space industry. This includes space launches by the New Zealand subsidiary of
Rocket Lab, an American aerospace company, and creating new regulation in partnership with the
Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand to fly a suborbital
spaceplane from conventional airports.
MethaneSAT In November 2019, the agency signed a partnership with American
non-governmental organization Environmental Defense Fund to work on
MethaneSAT, an
Earth observation satellite that will study human
methane emissions in order to better track and
combat climate change. As part of the partnership, the agency has contributed for research and the rights to host mission control. The mission marked New Zealand's first government-funded space mission and successfully launched in early 2024. On 19 August 2020, Dr Sara Mikaloff-Fletcher, a former carbon cycling expert at
NIWA, was named as lead scientist on the mission. On 2 July 2025, the Space Agency confirmed that the owners of MethaneSAT had lost contact with the satellite on 20 June 2025 and that recovery was unlikely.
RNZ reported that the satellite had cost taxpayers a total of NZ$32 million due to an extra $3 million caused by delays and investment in an unused ground Mission Control.
Artemis Accords On 1 June 2021, the NZSA signed the
Artemis Accords, making New Zealand the 11th signatory of the accords. An announcement released the same day stated, "New Zealand has joined an international arrangement to co-operate with
NASA on peaceful exploration and activity in outer space.
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Economic Development Minister
Stuart Nash announced the government has agreed to join the Artemis Accords, launched by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and now signed by eleven nations
." NASA administrator
Bill Nelson later congratulated the agency.
NZ-USA Space Framework Agreement On 9 August 2022, New Zealand and the United States signed a framework agreement to launch new space sector opportunities.
Stuart Nash signed the Framework Agreement with
United States Deputy Secretary of State,
Wendy Sherman. The signing followed Prime Minister
Jacinda Ardern and Vice President
Kamala Harris welcoming the completion of negotiations on this agreement during their meeting in Washington, DC on 31 May 2022. ==See also==