Australia’s government has decided to form a national space agency to coordinate and lead the country’s space activities, which are scattered across many agencies.
Michaelia Cash, Australia’s acting minister for industry, innovation and science, said Sept. 23 that the new agency will help the nation’s space companies grab a greater share of the global market.
“The global space industry is growing rapidly and it’s crucial that Australia is part of this growth,” Cash said in a statement. “A national space agency will ensure we have a strategic long-term plan that supports the development and application of space technologies and grows our domestic space industry.”
Chicago-based Boeing [BA], which employs more than 3,000 people in Australia, and Maryland-based Lockheed Martin [LMT], which has more than 800 employees in Australia, both welcomed the announcement.
“By bringing together the government, academia and industry, a national space agency will provide significant benefits including clear national leadership, as well as helping to ensure Australia is represented internationally with a consistent voice on space,” said Rod Drury, managing director for Australia and New Zealand at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company International.
Boeing said it “looks forward to partnering with the Australian government as we have with NASA and other space agencies for decades.”
Earlier in 2017, the Australia government formed a panel of experts to study how to boost the nation’s space industry. While that review is not due to be finished until March, feedback from key stakeholders “has overwhelmingly shown the need” for a space agency, the government said. The panel will now develop a charter for the new agency as part of a broader space strategy.
In March, the Space Industry Association of Australia called for creating a space agency, saying the country’s fragmented space efforts confuse foreign space agencies and contractors and miss opportunities to spur progress.
The association projected that a space agency could double Australia’s share of the global space economy in five years. Australia represents 1.8 percent of the world economy but just 0.8 percent of the global space economy.
Australia’s space activities with the United States include hosting and operating NASA’s Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex and partnering in the U.S. Air Force’s Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) constellation. Australia is slated to host the U.S. Air Force’s potential second Space Fence radar site, which would detect and track orbiting objects.
The week of Sept. 24, Australia hosts the 68th International Astronautical Congress convention in Adelaide, where Lockheed Martin and SpaceX are both expected to provide updates on their proposals for sending people to Mars.