Awarua Tracking Station
Awarua Satellite Ground Station is an Earth station built initially to support the European Space Agency Ariane 5 ES ATV launch campaigns. It was established by Venture Southland in 2007. It is owned and operated by Invercargill-based Space Operations New Zealand Ltd, which was spun off from in 2021.
The site on Awarua Plains was chosen because of its relatively high latitude, low elevation mask and isolation from sources of radio interference. It has a fibre-optic broadband links to the Internet.
The station was first used in 2008 to track Jules Verne, and subsequently four more Automated Transfer Vehicles servicing the International Space Station.
The station now provides telecommunications to commercial and space agency spacecraft in low Earth orbit with its own antennas and hosted antennas.