New Zealand Space Agency

Congratulations to Rocket Lab on another successful launch 🚀, rounding out a busy 2024. 

We’re still buzzing after seeing Robin McNeill win the inaugural Prime Minister's Space Prize for Professional Excellence and Cairo Akehurst and Tiyani Mathur receive the inaugural Prime Minister's Space Prize for Student Endeavour on Tuesday.   A recent graduate of Scots College Wellington-New Zealand, Tianyi’s research project focused on how cells communicate with each other to create organised patterns. Here she describes the potential of her research to help reduce the quantity of resources transported from Earth to manufacture materials for habitation and exploration in space. We look forward to sharing more about Robin's, Cario’s and Tianyi’s work in 2025. Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment #PMSpacePrizes #STEM #SpaceAwards #WellingtonNZ #Space #SpaceExploration https://lnkd.in/gVQcqEDa

Congratulations to the three winners of the inaugural Prime Minister’s Space Prizes! 👏 SpaceOps NZ founder and chief executive Robin McNeill MNZM has been awarded the Prime Minister’s Space Prize for Professional Excellence, while high school students Cairo Akehurst from Christchurch’s Cashmere High School and Tianyi Mathur from Scots College Wellington-New Zealand have jointly won the Prime Minister’s Space Prize for Student Endeavour. Space Operations New Zealand Ltd is a New Zealand owned and operated ground segment service provider for the space industry. Robin has designed and built ground stations in Antarctica, Tokelau and Southland. He has played a critical role in deepening New Zealand’s space relationship with the European Space Agency - ESA. He is also instrumental in growing a pipeline of engineers and employees with the necessary skills and experience to deliver future impact. He supervises post-graduate students undertaking space research and SpaceOps NZ employs undergraduate engineering students in summer jobs. Cairo is the brains behind Cattle Credit, a start-up that stemmed from a research project to improve the accuracy of satellite data to measure methane emissions. His work aims to harness satellite data and turn it into something farmers and companies can use to understand methane emissions at a farm level and track the impact of mitigation efforts. Tianyi has developed a computer simulation to mimic the process of communication between cells. Practical applications for the space sector could include biosensors, autonomous systems, or new materials that could organise or repair themselves automatically, which could be vital in spacecraft or in extraterrestrial environments and would avoid the need for impractical traditional manufacturing infrastructure in space. All three received their awards during an event at Parliament on Tuesday evening and are pictured here with Head of the New Zealand Space Agency Iain Cossar. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gFQDH32d Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment Royal Society Te Apārangi #PMSpacePrizes #STEM #SpaceAwards #Satellites #Southland #Christchurch #WellingtonNZ

This #worldsoilday the theme is “Caring for soils: measure, monitor, manage”. The University of Auckland and Restore Lab Ltd’s #Rongowai (te reo Māori for “to sense water”) is a NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration and New Zealand-partnered mission. Air New Zealand is hosting a NASA Global Navigation Satellite System reflectometry (GNSS-R) instrument on a Q300 domestic aircraft. With its frequent flights scientists can monitor our coastlines, rivers and wetlands and soil moisture over weeks, months and years.  📷⬇ Illustrates just one month’s coverage from January 2024 zoomed in to show patterns of dry (red to orange) and moist (yellow to green) soil, alongside open water. Soil moisture patterns and dynamics are critical for food security and sustainability but also informing risk mitigation for floods, droughts and wildfires. #Rongowai’s data is hosted by NASA to support GNSS-R satellite missions for global soil moisture and vegetation monitoring. In New Zealand, scientists are partnering with NASA and now SmartSat CRC to monitor soil moisture at land-use scales in heterogeneous and diverse land-cover types. This project has been made possible through an agreement between NASA and Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). More info ⬇ Partnership between Air New Zealand, NASA, and the New Zealand Space Agency lifts off | Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment https://lnkd.in/gZwaGBTY https://lnkd.in/dx7-Vvr 📷 Soil moisture patterns of New Zealand's North Island, January 2024. Credit: Restore Lab Ltd   The University of Auckland Michigan State University #SatelliteTechnology #ClimateMonitoring #SpaceScience

⏳ Closing soon! Our economic survey of the New Zealand space and advanced aviation sectors closes on 30 November. 🚀 Take part and help build an up to date, comprehensive picture of these dynamic sectors. Having accurate data helps to shape policy, raise the global profile and attract skilled people and investment. 👉 Find out more: https://lnkd.in/gvkPgWdA 📝 Complete the survey online before 30 November: https://lnkd.in/gpAjw8ra Space Trailblazer

Congratulations on the latest successful launch 🚀

Help build a comprehensive, up to date picture of New Zealand’s space and advanced aviation sectors by taking part in our economic survey. Having accurate data about the size and value of these sectors will help shape policy and future initiatives. Demonstrating previous and potential economic growth will help to attract skilled, talented people and investment. You can help by sharing your insights and expertise, with responses treated confidentially. Deloitte and Space Trailblazer are carrying out the survey on our behalf. Find out more about the survey and who should take part: https://lnkd.in/gvkPgWdA Complete the survey online before 30 November: https://lnkd.in/gpAjw8ra 📷 Lidar instruments at Lauder, South Island. Credit: Dave Allen NIWA

Congratulations to Dawn Aerospace on their historic achievement. This is such an exciting milestone for our New Zealand space and advanced aviation sectors.

Help us build a comprehensive picture of New Zealand's dynamic space and advanced aviation sectors by taking part in our economic survey.

Aerospace New Zealand is hosting its final meet up for 2024 next Tuesday 19 November. Head of the NZ Space Agency Iain Cossar will be there and it's a great opportunity to catch up & hear about what's happening around the sector.