Space Minister Judith Collins. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The government says measures to stop malicious activity to use ground-based space operations to harm the country will be in place from July.
This follows spy agency warnings that unnamed foreign actors have tried to interfere in local infrastructure in the past five years.
"A new regulatory regime will start in July to deter foreign interference in New Zealand's infrastructure that carry out tracking and control of spacecraft, space surveillance and the transfer of data to and from spacecraft," said Space Minister Judith Collins in a statement on Monday.
Legislation to combat this would include regulations in July setting out a registration regime for ground-based operators.
A transition period would last up to next March, when infrastructure operators would have to demonstrate due diligence and have security systems in order to get registered, at pain of fines of $50,000-$250,000, Collins said, who will call the shots, while MBIE administers the registration regime.
"To date these risks have been managed through non-regulatory measures, including relying on the goodwill of [ground-based] operators," Collins said.
Collins said these measures are no longer enough.
"The introduction of this new regime will serve as a deterrent. It sends a very clear message that we take our national security seriously, and we will act if we suspect that it is under threat," she said.
This would cover space surveillance and satellite communications, telemetry, tracking and control of spacecraft, and geodetic infrastructure, but not consumer products like satellite phones.
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