South Australia space industry strategy in place from 2016 to win Australian space agency two years later
South Australia is ready to become the southern hemisphere focus of space activity.
The South Australian government had a space innovation and growth strategy – along with a space industry centre – in place from 2016. The space industry centre created the South Australian space council, made up of Australia’s top space industry experts.
In 2017, Adelaide hosted the 68th International Astronautical Congress where it was announced that Australia would establish its own national space agency after decades without proper international representation. A year later, Adelaide was confirmed as home for the agency, to be sited at the Lot Fourteen innovation hub on North Terrace, Adelaide.
A mission control centre and space discovery centre also would be at Lot Fourteen, along with the headquarters for the SmartSat CRC – a cooperative research centre for smart satellite technologies and analytics – that has $55 million backing from the Australian Government plus $190 million from its network 100 industry and research partners from overseas and Australia.
Australia’s rebooted space industry is positioning itself as a world leader in developing smart satellites and associated technologies that will streamline communication, drive the Internet of Things, enhance Earth observation and shape the defence forces. The federal government aimed to grow the space market from A$3.9 billion to $12 billion by 2030 and double space industry employment to 30,000.
More than a dozen Australian space organisations ranging from startups to universities and established aerospace companies were part of the Australian space agency stand at the with the 70th International Astronautical Congress in Washington DC in 2019. These included eight entities from South Australia: Nova Systems, the SmartSat CRC, Neumann Space, Inovor Technologies, Silentium Defence, Southern Launch, Flinders University and the University of South Australia’s Innovation and Collaboration Centre.
