April 07, 2026

#galaxy: Kiwi Space Unit Tracks Historic Moon Mission from Aotearoa Skies

Matthew Tukaki Posted On April 7, 2026

New Zealand has played a small but significant role in one of humanity’s most ambitious space missions, with Royal New Zealand Air Force personnel helping track NASA’s Artemis II flight as it journeyed beyond the moon.

Members of RNZAF No. 62 Squadron monitored the Orion spacecraft as it passed over Aotearoa around midnight, travelling at an altitude of about 70,000 kilometres on its path to loop around the moon.

The mission has already made history, with four astronauts reaching the far side of the moon and travelling further into space than any humans before them.

From its observatory in Whangaparāoa, the squadron used specialised telescopes to follow the spacecraft’s trajectory, joining a global network of partner nations supporting the mission. Data gathered in New Zealand was fed back to international space agencies, including NASA.

The operation followed a request from the United States Space Force, which coordinated tracking efforts among allied countries as part of a wider human spaceflight support programme.

RNZAF personnel tracked the spacecraft during its high Earth orbit phase, relying on shared trajectory data from international partners to guide their telescopes and lock onto the moving capsule in deep space.

The Orion craft’s altitude placed it well beyond the range typically monitored by the squadron, making the task both technically challenging and a rare opportunity for the team.

The Whangaparāoa facility is equipped with two telescopes capable of scanning different portions of the night sky, allowing operators to capture imagery and monitor objects in orbit with precision.

For the squadron, the mission represents a milestone in New Zealand’s growing involvement in global space operations, particularly in the area of space domain awareness.

Personnel involved say contributing to such a landmark mission has been a source of pride, with the experience offering a rare chance to be directly involved in a moment of space exploration history rather than simply observing it.

The team is now preparing to track the spacecraft again as it returns to Earth, with weather conditions expected to play a key role in whether further observations can be made.