Southern Space - 12 May

Southern Space is a weekly newsletter produced by SIAA to inform the Australian space industry?

CEO Update

One of our members texted me this week with a view on Tuesday’s commonwealth budget:

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“That’s one small cut for the Department of Industry, one giant leap backwards for Australia’s space industry”.

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The cuts to the space budget are significant. The government has cancelled the $30m allocated previously to support the development of Australian spaceports, which was designed to unlock billions in potential investment from US companies particularly. Also cancelled is a $30m program designed to support faster access to spaceflight by Australian companies developing new technology. The $21.5m Moon to Mars Supply Chain Facilitation grant, announced in September 2020, has been cut in its entirety, nearly two years after the tender process was completed. There has been no explanation for why this program, designed to get Australian space SMEs into global space supply chains, is no longer a government priority.

There is as yet no confirmation about the status of the National Space Mission for Earth Observation, announced 15 months ago. It remains in the budget papers but has been deemed “not for publication”. Both the Industry Minister’s office and the Australian Space Agency say a decision will be announced about this “in due course”.

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The Australian Space Agency will receive approximately $11m per year for core operations, making it one of the government’s smallest agencies by budget. As I put it to the Sydney Morning Herald: “Every country in the world is investing in growing space capability. Only governments can lead that investment, and our government is going in a different direction.” The National Reconstruction Fund, thanks to our industry’s advocacy efforts, will include space as a priority. But it will be some time before the NRF investments flow. The stop-start of government policy and investment on space in the past two years will hurt some of our members, damage our international competitiveness, and ultimately cost jobs and business opportunities.

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So that’s the bad news. The good news is that Moon to Mars capability grants have emerged from review and will proceed to be awarded by the Space Agency in the next few months. And the budget cuts in the Industry portfolio are not all on space, the?Artificial Intelligence industry received cuts of $30m?and the Academy of Science highlighted decline in some aspects of the science budget this week. There is still intense interest in Australian space from international partners, as evidenced by JAXA’s strong delegation to the highly successful Andy Thomas Space Forum this week. And private investors continue to be supportive of Australian space companies.

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From a SIAA perspective, we will focus on fighting for the survival of the National Space Mission for Earth Observation. As Australia’s first civilian space mission, it is critical that this mission survive if we are ever to build sovereign space capability in Australia. Without the NSMEO, Australia will be naked in the new global space economy. We will press the government to articulate their vision for space. And we will continue to build champions for space inside government and across the Australian economy.

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But.

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We need to get much better for advocating for Australian space industry, with both government and private customers. A frank observation: as an industry we spend too much time talking to each other and not enough looking outwards to where our future customers are. There are too many space conferences where space people talk to space people (there are too many space conference full stop, but that’s a discussion for another day). There are too many companies going it alone on their advocacy efforts. There are too many space experts who don’t understand that in a tight economic climate, every investment dollar our industry receives is coming at another industry’s expense. As an industry, wholistically, we will need to fight more fiercely for customers and the support of everyday Australians. We have a lot to do to skill up and resource up on that front. That effort will be a bigger part of SIAA’s go-forward strategy.

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2025 will be an election year as well as the year Australia hosts the International Astronautical Congress. We need to make sure that for whomever wins government, investing in Australian space industry is not just a nice to have – it is an indispensable part of a vision for Australia’s future. We are up for that challenge. I hope you are too.

Industry News

Rocket Lab Launches Two NASA Satellites: This week, SIAA member Rocket Lab successfully launched two NASA CubeSats on board an Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. The two satellites were developed for monitoring the development of tropical weather storms and are part of NASA’s TROPICS constellation. An additional two CubeSats will be launched in the coming weeks, forming a four-satellite system equipped with microwave radiometers capable of monitoring temperature and water vapour profiles to predict the formation of hurricanes and other tropical weather systems. ?

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China: The Chinese Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC) announced the landing of a?Chinese reusable spacecraft on May 8, ending the vehicle’s 276 days in orbit. Details on the mission are limited, however, the mission constitutes a significant development in the country’s reusable spaceflight technology. According to the US Space Force, the vehicle launched from the Gobi Desert in August last year, releasing a small satellite into orbit later in the year. China’s previous spaceplane mission lasted four days. ?

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UK Approves Viasat Acquisition of Inmarsat: SIAA Foundation member Viasat’s planned acquisition of SIAA member Inmarsat was approved by the UK’s competition watchdog this week. Despite the companies being close competitors, the watchdog ruled that the merger would still face sufficient competition from other present and future market competitors.?Viasat?now requires approval from the European Commission, expected by the end of June, as well as the US Federal Communications Commission. ?

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Launch Contract for First Active Debris Removal Mission: Arianespace has signed a launch contract with ClearSpace for the first active debris removal mission intended to capture and deorbit space debris of 112kg. The ClearSpace-1 mission is slated for 2026 aboard the Vega C launch vehicle, which will release the spacecraft into LEO for critical test and commissioning. The spacecraft will then be raised to the client object for rendezvous, capture and de-orbitation through atmospheric re-entry. ?

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Hybrid Contract to Procure Spacecraft to Deorbit the ISS: NASA has proposed a hybrid contract approach for the acquisition of a spacecraft intended towards de-orbiting the International Space Station at the end of the decade. The vehicle would dock at the ISS and conduct a controlled re-entry. The agency released a request for proposals last week for the ‘United States Deorbit Vehicle’ (USDV), awaiting feedback till the end of the month for a final RFP in early July. The hybrid contract for the USDV combines aspects of cost-plus and fixed-price contracts. NASA has requested $180 million in funding within its 2024 budget proposal to commence work on the vehicle.?

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Job Opportunities

SIAA has opened applications for the SIAA Optus Industry Fellow. The?two-year, full-time fellowship is open to an early to mid-career professional who will help to build the Australian space industry through a focus on developing national programs to grow the Australian space industry workforce.

View the job posting?on?SIAA’s Southern Space Jobs Board?to see what job opportunities are available in the space industry.?

SIAA members can advertise job positions for free on the Southern Space Jobs board. For more information, please email?operations@spaceindustry.com.au?

Upcoming Events

SRN Mentoring Event Postponed

Please note that the SRN Mentoring Event featured in last week's newsletter is postponed to maximise impact. The Mentoring evening will now take place in mid-June. We will share updated details in the coming weeks.?

SIAA Member Profile:?iLAuNCH Trailblazer

iLAuNCH - Commercialising cool ideas into space hardware.?

Fast - 3.5 years,

Hard - TRL 4 to 8

Leveraged - $50m Government funding into a $180m consortium

Generous – IP favourable to industry

World class– Researchers from UniSQ, ANU, and UniSA

Focussed – experienced industry leadership team

Inspirational – using space to build the workforce of the future

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Led by the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ),?iLAuNCH?(Innovative Launch, Automation, Novel Materials, Communications and Hypersonics) is a multi-million Australian program?and collaboration. ILAuNCH?operates in partnership with the Australian National University and the University of South Australia, as well as over 20 industry organisations. The program strives to build Australia’s sovereign space capability by addressing critical gaps and accelerating the development of a space launch manufacturing sector. Through iLAuNCH?and its collaboration across major universities, the program aims to consolidate?and coordinate space manufacturing research and commercialisation?activities across research institutions.??

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iLAuNCH?is committed to developing Australia’s burgeoning space industry?through investment into industry research, commercialisation?and manufacturing capabilities. The program seeks?to achieve this through developing commercially viable?civil rockets, rocket test and launch facilities, rapid satellite manufacturing, communication technologies and integrated sensing systems.?ILAuNCH?brings together its various industry and research partners into 18 core four-year commercialisation?projects, aligning with the following six categories: additive manufacturing, materials?and processing, hypersonics?and flight diagnostics, rocket manufacturing, rocket launch and finally, satellites, communications?and sensors.??

Get in touch:

www.Ilaunch.space

Ilaunch@ilaunch.space

Header Image Credit:?Sunrise Over the Pacific (NASA, 10-02-23) Image Credit - NASA

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