2026 New Zealand Space Scholarship winners announced

The talented group will spend 3 months at JPL working alongside scientists and engineers on real-world missions. They will contribute to cutting-edge space technology projects and gain experience at the forefront of global space innovation.

The students received their scholarships at a ceremony today:

Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington

• Alexander Wiseman
• Angela Xue
• Laura Doyle
• Zhen Hong Chai

Auckland University of Technology

• Laura Franssen

University of Auckland

• Kyja McCabe
• Thomas Phillips

While at JPL, they will work across a range of projects, including astrovirology, analysing gas reactions under vacuum ultraviolet (UV) light, developing power electronics systems, and end-to-end telemetry analysis.

New Zealand’s space sector is at the forefront of innovation, and the Space Scholarship gives postgraduate students the opportunity to gain valuable international experience before bringing that expertise home.

Building a highly skilled, space-capable workforce is a key priority of New Zealand’s Space and Advanced Aviation Strategy.

Since the scholarship programme began, a total of 28 students have undertaken internships at NASA research centres.

The 2026 cohort is the fourth to complete in-person placements at JPL, continuing a strong pipeline of New Zealand talent into the global space sector.

More information:

New Zealand Space Scholarship

Space and Advanced Aviation Strategy