Methane-detecting satellite launch delayed by a year
A methane-measuring satellite that will be controlled from New Zealand has been quietly delayed by at least a year, Minister of Research, Science and Innovation Ayesha Verrall has confirmed after Stuff inquiries.
The Government contributed $26m to the Methanesat mission, an international project to measure gas pipeline leaks, cow burps and other sources of methane from space.
According to the United Nations, methane from human activities is responsible for about a quarter of global heating.
The Government’s contribution to a methane-detecting satellite was supposed to help bolster the country’s space sector and grow global knowledge about methane – a potent planet-warmer which leaks from oil and gas pipes, wetlands, rice paddies and the stomachs of cows and sheep.
Methane levels in the atmosphere are rising at a worrying pace, but the locations of many sources remain a mystery.
Pinpointing where methane is coming from is crucial to curbing global heating. The Methanesat launch was supposed to happen late this year. The soonest it will launch now is October next year, but it could be delayed further, the minister’s office confirmed.
Verrall said the delays were mainly because of Covid-19 and supply chain issues, ‘‘as well as delays in completion of the satellite in the US’’.
She said Rocket Lab and University of Auckland’s Te Pūnaha tea – Space Institute were still on track to develop and run the mission control in New Zealand to the original timeline.
Verrall said the next available launch window for the transporter that will carry the satellite into space was October next year. However, there was no guarantee the launch would happen then.
Community ‘should have been kept up-to-date’
Richard Easther, a professor in the physics department at the University of Auckland, who is not directly involved in managing the university’s Methanesat project, said that, as a matter of principal, New Zealanders should have been kept up-to-date on progress.
‘‘It is a major investment,’’ Easther said.
‘‘Our involvement with Methanesat is exciting, but it was opportunistic – it didn’t happen in the context of a bigger call for proposals. Consequently, we will want to be particularly clear that it is still delivering on our expectations,’’ he said.
Easther said the delayed project ‘‘underlines the importance of a coherent strategy for space for New Zealand, and that is still in the works’’.
Stuff asked Verrall if the delay lessened the value to New Zealand of the investment. In an emailed response, she said industry, policymakers and the scientific community were still strongly interested and engaged, ‘‘indicating an enthusiastic audience ready to make use of the emissions data’’.
Both the instrument itself and the analytical platform that would
process the data had ‘‘met or exceeded performance goals’’, she said.
Participation in global project still up in the air
During the latest global climate summit, the UN announced a new, satellite-based global methane detection system to help find major sources of methane and reduce them.
The UN’S announcement of the Methane Alert and Response
System this month was part of the Global Methane Pledge, an international effort to cut methane that New Zealand has signed up to. The plan is to alert companies, governments and others to big sources of methane so they can plug them faster.
It is not clear whether New Zealand and Methanesat will be part of the UN system. A spokesperson for the minister said it was possible, but not confirmed.