Sailor Tyler
Student at Flinders University
Piece written for topic “Outer Space Governance”
Australia’s attempts to broaden its abilities as a space power in an international scene is diminished by the country’s current inability to optimally launch domestically manufactured technology into orbit. The country is heavily reliant on its agreements and diplomatic relationships with the United States, France, Japan, and New Zealand, to keep exploring the Space domain. Even Australian military satellites, like the RAAF CubeSats (10cm3 nanosats) and the Optus C1 dual-use satellite, have been launched in collaboration with other countries. If Australia wishes to continue growing its involvement in the space sector, it should prioritise improving its launching abilities – both of technology and people.
Factual background
The Australian Civil Space Strategy 2019-2028 intended to develop the Australian space capability, connect internationally and ensure the security of its “sovereign space infrastructure and activities”. The intention behind the policy was to create jobs, foster a sense of national pride, and extend Australia’s power in the region – China and India are the only countries in the Indo-Pacific to have landed on the Moon. With the intended 2025 “Roover” moon exploration launch, Australia is keen to demonstrate its Space exploration abilities, and gain national support for its projects.
Australia currently has several launch sites established on its territory, with several non-permanent, and/or suborbital site established with launching capabilities. Currently, Australia’s only private orbital space launch will be that of Gilmour Space Technologies’ Eris rocket, which is hoped to launch in 2024. It will be the first completely Australian-made rocket to be launched from the Bowen Orbital Space port, Gilmour’s own launch facility in Queensland, which has been granted launch permission under the Space (Launches and Returns) Act 2018. At the moment, when Australia wishes to launch satellites or payloads on other satellites, this typically occurs in the US or New Zealand, utilising the Canaveral, Vandenberg and Onenui stations. This creates a conflict of ownership, sovereignty, and cost of launching.
Australia also does not have the ability to train and launch astronauts, with Andy Thomas, Paul Scully-Power and Philip Chapman all becoming American citizens and training with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Katherine Bennell-Pegg recently graduated from the European Space Agency’s astronaut training program, so that she may be launched for flight in the near future.
Discussion of the problem
If Australia is to continually rely on other nations’ support for space activities, the country will not become a sovereign space power. Sovereignty implies a degree of control, responsibility, and complete ownership of actions and abilities, which is not present in Australian explorative launches. While Australia can quickly and effectively create CubeSats, it is heavily reliant on other countries to launch them and is one of many customers who utilise multiple joint satellites with global positioning system and earth observation abilities. It is also, then, vulnerable to attacks to said joint satellites, attacks like the Russian hacking of Ukrainian ViaSat modems, which ended up causing malfunctions in Poland, France and Germany, who also relied on such technology. If Australian earth observation abilities were hindered, which is relied on to monitor bushfires, oceans, emergency services, infrastructure, and weather, this would have major consequences on the Australian public and relevant government agencies, who need daily access to this information.
By developing independent launch capabilities, Australia will not be required to exhaust resources to deliver its payloads to other countries and remain indebted to them. With an annual space budget of nearly AUD$40 million since 2022, and the AUD$19.5 million Space Infrastructure Fund, that money could be invested in launch projects instead of paying the near million-dollar “pathway to launch” allocation to other countries for us to launch from them. Australia is already heavily reliant on US and UK military support, as seen with the AUKUS alliance, and its long-standing trade, defence and general bilateral agreements with New Zealand. To truly gain sovereignty in the Space sector, it may, nevertheless, be necessary to collaborate and share knowledge with those it has relied on beforehand.
Should we launch?
Australia’s intent to become a space power comes after the establishment of the Australian Space Agency in 2017, and with the 2020 signing of the Artemis Accords, working in conjunction with the US to get to the Moon. Australia has a history of continual reliance on the US, and to some extent UK, France and NZ, which have aided Australian space exploration, with the understanding of a reciprocal effort – that scientific findings, money and resources are shared with is international partners and allies. Australia has the ability for permanent orbital launch sites, (as seen with Woomera in remote South Australia and the Arnhem Space Centre in the Northern Territory) removing the need to develop new sites for this purpose, with potential environmental and heritage impacts such as the current controversies of the Whaler’s Way proposition. Instead, it could focus on upgrading the current “temporary” launch sites it already owns. This would create jobs and generate revenue within Australia through manufacturing, production, and engineering labour, and also protect Australian interests regarding minimising environmental and heritage impacts associated with developing new sites.
Having permanent launch sites could enable further development of Australia’s capacity to develop its own rockets, spacecraft, and satellites to launch, instead of utilising Cape Canaveral or Onenui, reflecting Australia’s technological and innovation prowess, and continuing to develop a highly skilled workforce. The country could, in future, also begin training its own astronauts. With the help of the European Space Agency and NASA, the organisations that have currently trained Australian astronauts (with the requirement of gaining relevant citizenships), Australia could develop its own space exploration abilities. This, of course, would take time, effort, and funding, but it is something that the Australian Space Agency, with the help of the government, has expressed interest in.
For Australia to develop sovereign launch capabilities, government action and funding are required. This may require realignment of government policy priorities, however the public, especially young people, have expressed interest in Australia’s space abilities, as demonstrated with the recent interest and support of the Roover project, thus supporting the inspiring and national pillars of the Strategic Space Pillars of the Civil Space Strategy.
Sailor Tyler is a student in Flinders University’s Bachelor of International Relations and Political Science program and completed the Outer Space Governance course in 2024. Sailor also participated in the first year of the Jeff Bleich Centre’s Vienna Space Internship Program which involved a placement with the European Space Policy Institute.