Countdown begins for NZ house invoice: who wants authorisation for “Ground-Based Space Infrastructure”?

The Outer Space and High-altitude Activities Amendment Bill¹ is geared toward managing nationwide safety and different dangers related to Ground-Based Space Infrastructure (GBSI). The Bill is meant to handle these dangers by deterring sure entities from endeavor GBSI actions in New Zealand and by supporting the identification and disruption of operations that won’t align with nationwide pursuits. This contains deterring international interference in techniques used to trace and management spacecraft. 

The new regime will take impact on 29 July 2025 with a transitional interval working till 29 July 2026 or when the brand new laws come into power (whichever comes first). All present operators of GBSI will likely be thought of to carry a transitional authorisation till the top of this era. The regime is prone to be of significance for numerous companies past conventional house operators, together with business floor stations, superior aviation knowledge companies, and any companies with satellite-related infrastructure or capabilities. All operators who fall inside scope will likely be required to use for authorisation and meet compliance necessities underneath the regime by the top of the transitional interval. 

What is the present regime?

Prior to the introduction of the brand new GBSI-specific regime, these actions had been ruled underneath a mixture of common authorized and safety frameworks, fairly than a devoted regulatory system. Key laws contains:

• Outer Space and High-altitude Activities Act 2017 New Zealand’s main laws for house actions, specializing in the regulation of launches, launch services, and high-altitude automobiles. While it contains licensing and allow necessities for these actions, its protection of GBSI has been restricted to cases the place GBSI is instantly concerned in these regulated operations. Note the brand new regime will likely be applied as an modification to this Act.
• Radiocommunications Act 1989 governs the usage of radio frequencies. GBSI operators are required to adjust to licensing and interference administration provisions underneath this Act when utilizing the radio spectrum.
• Telecommunications (Interception Capability and Security) Act 2013 requires community operators to have interaction with the Government Communications Security Bureau on community safety and interception functionality. Where GBSI includes telecommunications infrastructure, this Act might apply.

What is altering?

The modification invoice particularly offers with GBSI, requiring operators to have in place protecting safety and due diligence techniques in addition to acquiring authorisation to function the GBSI. These requirements will likely be necessary for all GBSI operators, together with for present GBSI operators.

The new GBSI regime will seize a broad vary of economic and industrial operators whereas carving out clear exemptions for on a regular basis customers. The scope of the brand new regime contains:

• Telemetry, monitoring, and management (TT&C) of spacecraft together with techniques used to observe and handle spacecraft, equivalent to satellites, probes, or crewed automobiles from Earth. It contains gathering and transmitting knowledge on spacecraft standing, figuring out its place and trajectory, and sending operational instructions. The scope additionally covers techniques with the potential to intervene with or disrupt satellite tv for pc performance;
• Space surveillance and identification of spacecraft together with monitoring and figuring out objects in house, together with lively and inactive satellites, house particles, and pure celestial our bodies equivalent to asteroids. These techniques help house site visitors administration, collision avoidance, and situational consciousness;
• Satellite knowledge reception, i.e. the method of receiving knowledge transmitted through radio indicators from satellites, sometimes by means of a ground-based antenna or dish, which is then decoded and processed by receiving gear; and
• Other areas of concern, if prescribed in laws.

The laws particularly excludes private, home, and family customers from these necessities, that means odd shoppers utilizing satellite tv for pc TV dishes, satellite tv for pc telephones, cell phones, web terminals, or emergency locator beacons should not caught by the brand new guidelines. The exemptions additionally defend leisure actions like novice astronomy, emergency companies operations, incidental enterprise use (equivalent to lodges or farms utilizing satellite tv for pc web), and the usage of publicly obtainable techniques for navigation or timing companies except these techniques are getting used to manage or help house objects. 

The regime could also be related to telecommunications suppliers, who could also be affected the place they function satellite tv for pc floor stations or handle infrastructure that receives or relays satellite tv for pc knowledge. These actions usually contain TT&C capabilities and direct interplay with spacecraft techniques.

In addition, airways more and more depend on satellite-based companies for real-time plane monitoring and in-flight connectivity, which can contain receiving satellite tv for pc knowledge or integrating with surveillance techniques. Rocket Lab and different launch suppliers are instantly engaged in TT&C and house surveillance as a part of their mission operations, from launch by means of to satellite tv for pc deployment and monitoring. Drone operators, significantly these conducting Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations, might also intersect with the regime when utilizing satellite-based navigation, surveillance, or knowledge reception techniques.

When will the adjustments take impact?

The laws will take impact on 29 July 2025 and will likely be applied in two phases, with full compliance required by the top of the transitional interval.

• Stage 1 grants the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, because the regulator, the authority to close down operations deemed opposite to New Zealand’s nationwide safety. This contains the authority to droop or revoke a transitional authorisation.
• Stage 2 will introduce detailed laws for GBSI registration. All in-scope operators, together with these with infrastructure established earlier than 29 July 2025, should implement protecting safety and due diligence techniques and search authorisation previous to the top of the transitional interval.

Operators who fail to conform might face gear seizure, fines of as much as NZ$50,000 and/or one 12 months imprisonment for people, and as much as NZ$250,000 for entities. The authority might also challenge orders for the disposal of GBSI, the termination of electrical energy or web companies to the GBSI, or its forfeiture.

Wider adjustments

This regulatory shift aligns with broader authorities efforts to modernise and strengthen New Zealand’s science and innovation ecosystem. On 1 July 2025, three new science organisations had been launched:

• New Zealand Insitute for Bioeconomy Science
• New Zealand Institute for Earth Science
• New Zealand Institute for Public Health and Forensic Science

These institutes purpose to ship a extra related, commercially targeted science system aligned with nationwide priorities.

Simultaneously, the house and superior aviation sectors are experiencing speedy development. A current financial report exhibits the house sector has grown by 53% since 2019, contributing near NZ$2.5 billion to the economic system in 2023–24, whereas the superior aviation sector added practically NZ$500 million. The Government’s New Zealand Space and Advanced Aviation Strategy 2024 to 2030 goals to double the dimensions of those sectors by 2030, reinforcing the significance of clear and workable regulatory frameworks to help development.

In gentle of the regime, companies working in or adjoining to the satellite tv for pc or high-altitude expertise sectors ought to take into account auditing techniques and assessing publicity. Whether your online business is a knowledge receiver, launch help supplier, or monitoring gear operator, early preparation for the 29 July 2026 transition might mitigate important dangers and guarantee your online business is ready to meet the compliance necessities and acquire registration underneath the brand new regime. Please get in contact for those who require help with guaranteeing your online business’s authorisation software is prepared for the top of the transitional interval.

If you have got any questions on this text, please get in contact with the contacts listed or your typical Bell Gully adviser.

[1] Outer Space and High-altitude Activities Amendment Bill 185-1 (2025), Government Bill Contents – New Zealand Legislation