As we look towards the next decade of our burgeoning national and regional space industry, we need to reframe how people see the sector. Australians should understand that a strong space sector means a strong economy.
The federal government’s Statement on Space is a good sign that space is part of the national conversation and that space capability is becoming essential to Australia’s economy, national security and future prosperity.
Its ambition to build an enduring Australian space ecosystem, strengthen sovereign capability, capture more of the value chain and help Australian businesses compete globally is very welcome.
Around the world, countries are contending with geopolitical instability while also grappling with more severe natural disasters and growing pressure on food and energy security. Sovereign capabilities are more important than ever as we confront these challenges and safeguard our future.
Space tech has rapidly become a critical enabler in building the capabilities that bolster every part of our economy.
The national digital twin for food security, initiated by the Australasian Space Innovation Institute, is a great example of that. This sovereign, AI-enabled space capability will help farmers and policymakers make faster, more strategic decisions. It will use satellite imagery and Earth observation data to track soil moisture, detect crop stress earlier and improve irrigation precision.
Another is the Canberra-based Skykraft, which is putting air traffic surveillance into orbit, extending coverage over oceans and remote areas beyond the reach of ground-based radar. It’s a space company solving an aviation safety problem.
You could describe these as space projects, and they are, but that underrates their contribution to the terrestrial economy. They are agriculture and aviation projects that happen to require space.
Beyond these innovations, space-enabled technologies play a crucial role every day in protecting our most critical industries. Resilient space infrastructure underpins everything from GPS to energy grids.
That is why viewing space as its own sector, existing for its own sake, is missing the bigger picture. Space technologies are becoming increasingly fundamental to how modern economies operate.
That is why viewing space as a standalone sector that exists for its own sake misses something. Space technologies are becoming fundamental to the way modern economies operate.
Strategic infrastructure
The most consequential part of the Statement on Space is the undertaking to coordinate public sector demand. Everything else depends on whether that commitment is delivered.
Identifying priorities is harder than it looks, and the Statement names five: trusted space services, a spaceflight ecosystem, space platforms, a microgravity ecosystem and exploration technologies.
These are the right five. They build on actual Australian strengths rather than aspirational ones and are framed around resilience and national capability rather than prestige.
For the Statement to work in practice, three things need to happen.
First, demand coordination needs to be translated into actual procurement practice.
Coordinating public sector demand signals is the right ambition, but signals aren’t contracts. Agencies buying space-derived services for emergency management, agriculture, environmental monitoring and maritime domain awareness need a mechanism that allows them to procure Australian capability without requiring each department to negotiate from scratch.
We can look to Greece for a version of this. Its EUR350 million programme, funded through European recovery measures, is organised around defined missions in wildfire monitoring, flood response, maritime surveillance and precision agriculture, with domestic production lines and local participation targets attached.
Second, we should fund the translation layer. Australia is good at research and improving at commercialisation, but there is still a gap. You’ll find it in the unglamorous work of taking a demonstrated capability and making it reliable enough for a government agency to depend on during a flood or fire.
This is where public capability investment can generate its highest return, and where the current architecture is most thin.
Third, we need to actually measure what we are managing and do so consistently. The Statement describes the sector using figures from 2021: 275 small and medium-sized enterprises and $4.6 billion in economic activity. Five years is a long time in a sector moving this fast, and we can’t set credible ambitions or judge whether policy is working using evidence that old.
Producing current, decision-grade data on Australia’s space capability should be the first deliverable from the Agency’s consultation.
The Agency has committed to targeted consultation with industry, academia and government to develop the detailed actions that will sit behind the Statement. That’s the moment that counts, and the sector should meet it with concrete proposals.
For our part, the Australasian Space Innovation Institute intends to bring the full weight of its research network to the table.
When we look back in the years ahead, success in space will not be measured by the number of rockets launched or satellites built. It will be reflected in a more competitive economy, safer communities, more productive farms, stronger national security and more resilient supply chains.
By Professor Andy Koronios is the CEO of the Australasian Space Innovation Institute
This article was first published by Capital Brief