US-Australia space business agreement in place for lift-off

We speak with Joel Lisk, Research Associate (Space and Regulation) at the Jeff Bleich Centre for Democracy and Disruptive Technologies at Flinders University

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Australia's new Technology Safeguards Agreement will play an important role in Australia’s cooperation with the US, strengthening the ties we have with the US related to sensitive technologies, including the growing AUKUS relationship.

The implementation of this agreement will be essential to determining whether it is a useful instrument or just an agreement that will never be used.

At the same time, its implementation will need to be carefully considered to ensure it does not have an oppressive impact on start-up and growing Australian businesses that outweighs the benefits of this TSA.

This week the Australian Government released the wording of the Technology Safeguards Agreement (TSA) it signed with the US Government in October last year. The agreement will allow US companies to bring their rocket technology to Australia.

This treaty-level agreement will allow for space-businesses in the US to look to Australia as a potential location to launch their rockets and satellites. With four launch sites either established or under construction in Australia, this means we might get to see more US space businesses look to Australia as a viable place to operate from.