The Australian Space Agency’s headquarters at Lot Fourteen were launched in February, along with the new SmartSat CRC and the Australian subsidiary of SITAEL, Italy’s largest privately-owned space company.

In SA alone, there are nearly 80 space businesses and organisations. These include at least 20 businesses which started in the last five years, among them Myriota, Inovor Technologies and Neumann Space.

The Federal Government announced in September that the Australian Space Agency and NASA had entered into a partnership on future space cooperation, including the opportunity for Australia to join the United States’ Moon to Mars exploration approach and the program to return to the moon.

Speaking at the launch of the Australian Space Agency, the Prime Minister said it was central to the Federal Government’s vision to secure more jobs and a larger share of the growing space economy – forecast to be worth over $1 trillion around the world by 2040. The Federal Government has set the goal of tripling the size of the sector in Australia to $12 billion and adding an extra 20,000 jobs by 2030.

“We’re investing almost $700 million into the space sector, including $150 million into Australian businesses so they can pick up more work and support more jobs by partnering with NASA’s Moon to Mars initiative,” the Prime Minister said.

Australian businesses and researchers can showcase their knowledge and capabilities in projects that can support NASA’s mission and are being supported to become more competitive in international supply chains and increase Australia’s share in a growing US$350 billion global space market.

The SmartSat CRC comprises a consortium of universities and other research organisations, partnered with industry and funded by the Australian Government. It was created to develop technologies in areas such as intelligent satellite systems and earth observation, all which strongly align with those of the National Space Industry Hub.

CSIRO is collaborating with industry partner and Lot Fourteen resident, Inovor Technologies to design and build a CubeSat earth observation satellite, which will gather data focused on Australia. It was also served as a demonstrator for advanced on-board data processing capabilities, focused on harnessing skills and technology from across Australia.

“It’s obviously an exciting time in Australia’s space journey,” said SmartSat CEO Prof Koronios.

“However, the impact of all this activity will not be in space – the real impact will be the solutions and opportunities these initiatives deliver back on Earth.”