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Human Space Launches Within 5 Years ASA Reveals Plan Australia’s $12 billion plan to join the international space race comes with a pledge of when humans could be launched, and how we will develop our own rover. Ten years ago, talk of spaceports and lunar landings or rocket ships taking Australians to the stars was pretty much all pie in the sky. But Australia’s fledgling space program will this year take a giant leap forward with a series of rocket launches and satellite projects to seal the future of the $12 billion industry. And the recently minted Australian security alliances, the AUKUS with the UK and US and the Quad with India and Japan, will be expanded to “shape” space tech collaboration. Australian Space Agency head Enrico Palermo has outlined his 2022 plans to accelerate the national space program which he said would see human space launches from here within five years. Mr Palermo, who took the role in
Worked has commenced on the Arnhem Space Centre under construction from NASA. ELA.
2021 after 14 years at Virgin Galactic departing as chief operating officer, said Australia was just starting develop a brand as an emerging “space nation”. “I see 2022 as us really starting to arrive as a space nation in international forums,” he said. “The world wants to work with Australia that’s clear and the agency team in the first three years built those bridges … now we will turn it into active activity and partnership.” That includes with NASA in Arnhem Land near Nhulunbuy mid year for
Australian Space Agency head Enrico Palermo. ASA.
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a series of multiple rocket launches, NASA’s first launch from a commercial launch pad outside the US. This comes on top of a signed agreement with NASA to also see an Australian-made rover included in a future mission to Mars. There are now close 150 spacerelated organisations in Australia, 90 alone in South Australia and he said his challenge was to ensure they could be tied together for collaborations, to avoid duplication, including with the new Defence Space Division. Mr Palermo singled out Gilmour Space Technologies and Black Sky Aerospace from Queensland as also advanced in their plans for launches. In 2022 space would be included into AUKUS and Quad Dialogue “priority” negotiations where Earth observation data and technology could be shared for peaceful regional use and would open the market for Australia’s space industry. He said all the data Australia receives for everything from weather bureau stats for forecasts to mapping came from foreign satellites and from a national security perspective this needed to change. But he said Australia needed to move with an “increased sense of urgency”
