Tāwhaki National Aerospace Centre is making a new bid to grow as a testbed for drones, as it deals with new interest in rocket launches.
Two New Zealand space companies were in talks about building a launchpad or pads at Tāwhaki beside Lake Ellesmere Te Waihora near Christchurch.
Tāwhaki executive director John Holt said he could not name names.
"Yeah, yeah, so, a little bit sensitive at the moment... but I can certainly give you the inkling that they've, i guess what we'd say is, passed the sniff test in terms of having a real proposition," he told RNZ.
It could not come at a better time - Tāwhaki, a joint venture between hapu and the Crown, has struggled to win enough business, with Space Minister Judith Collins cutting its funding to a time-capped amount last year.
"We're running on the fumes of that, basically," Holt said.
Any launchpad would be for small test rockets initially, and take several years to scale up to the real thing.
In the meantime, Holt depended on getting a new business case approved - it was being vetted now by MBIE officials - and, crucially, getting Civil Aviation sign-off for the country's first special-use airspace zone to streamline testing for drones.
This would set a precedent for other drone test zones, Holt said - the government has promised to set up two more.
"What the special-use airspace does is it lets us have quite a unique thing in the world at the moment, which is a dedicated space above Tāwhaki, which is quite expansive, that these operators would be able to come and use."
The zone would extend at least 12km out to sea east of the lake; Tāwhaki would be able to activate it when tests were booked, for instance to keep small planes out, rather than tests having to get individual approval, case by case.
Geographically, Tāwhaki was proven the best spot in the country to launch rockets.
It was also in a unique spot to help local industry supply NZDF, under the new defence capability plan that aimed to put $200m-450m into air and sea drones by 2029, so that work does not all go offshore.
Tāwhaki trailed hooks in international waters for months last year looking for launchpad takers, without luck.
Then as it was building its first assets - a runway and hangar on Kaitorete Spit - the public sector crunch hit and the government turned its back on helping build launchpads.
That made the centre reliant in the short-term on horizontal launches, such as Samuel Vye does for his his company, Syos.
"We utilise Tāwhaki pretty regularly for complex operations," he said.
They would be able to do more if a special-use airspace zone was set up.
"It adds a string to the bow, because drones can take so many different shapes and forms, and with that requires different altitudes.
"Tāwhaki needs to be able to support basically any air vehicle."
Mark Rocket tested his stratospheric uncrewed aerial vehicle or UAV at Tāwhaki, and was about to put up its first commercial flight.
That put him in a good spot to benefit from the defence capability plan, which envisaged the bulk of drone funding going on long-range maritime surveillance UAVs.
"It's really exciting that the government is looking at that sort of technology and we'd hope to be in the mix for that," Rocket said.
The aerospace industry might end up wanting to test weaponised, or so-called killer drones, now the government has okayed their use - but that will not be happening at Tāwhaki.
Holt said a line had been drawn.
"It's been made pretty clear to us by our stakeholders in the past, certainly Waiwera and Taumutu [runanga], that kinetic [offensive operation] defence-related companies are off the table for us.
"I mean it's a difficult one because, you know, I come from sort of an innovation background, spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley.
"If you look at the history of anything, it generally starts with a big interest from government, and generally that government interest is driven by defence."
Getting the regulation right was a big deal, said Holt. "It's an exciting path."
The joint venture had talked to Air New Zealand, the Antarctic flights operators, the local aero club and others about it. "They're very supportive."
Civil Aviation had the special use airspace application out for feedback.
The application said, "The need for special use airspace (SUA) is clear and essential to ensure airspace safety levels are maintained or ideally, increased" as demand increased
It would provide "vital insights on the ideal frameworks for establishing further successful testing 'sandboxes' around Aotearoa" under the "light touch regulatory approach" the government adopted last year.
