Launch of First Kiwi Satellite Put on Hold

THE launch of New Zealand’s first space satellite is on hold while its developers focus on getting another project into orbit.

KiwiSat was due to be launched from the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan this year.

However, project leader Fred Kennedy said key personnel involved in the project were also working on a transponder for a German satellite with a guaranteed launch date this year.

KiwiSat was now unlikely to be launched till 2006, and even that depended on raising US$100,000 (NZ$141,000) to meet launch costs.

KiwiSat is being put together by an amateur satellite group backed by Massey University, where Mr Kennedy is a senior research fellow.

After being launched, the 10-kilogram satellite — slightly bigger than a basketball — will settle into an 800-kilometre polar orbit. It will connect amateur radio stations throughout the world and have space for commercial data, television and radio signals. Data it collects could help scientists studying the hole in the ozone layer.

Mr Kennedy said the Kiwi team got involved in the transponder project after the Germans saw what they had achieved with KiwiSat and were impressed.

Terry Osborne of Lower Hutt-based Stratex Engineering said KiwiSat’s computer had been finished and a circuit board manufactured. Software for the satellite was being written.

Fundraising was unlikely to start for some time yet.

“Until we have a model with something working, there’s not much point in raising money for the launch.”