Page 44 - Australian Defence Magazine Feb-Mar 2023

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DEFENCE BUSINESS ADM SPACE SUMMIT
FEBRUARY-MARCH 2023 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
BUILDING A SPACE ECOSYSTEM
The fourth annual ADM Space Summit took place at the Hyatt Hotel in Canberra on
1 December 2022, bringing together a large audience of government, defence and space industry delegates to discuss the state of the sector and its immense growth potential.
EWEN LEVICK & NIGEL PITTAWAY | CANBERRA
NASA
CHAIRED by Dr Melrose Brown, senior lecturer for UNSW Can- berra Space, delegates heard from Dara Williams, deputy head of the Australian Space Agency; representatives from bidders for JP 9102, including Lockheed Martin (LMA), Northrop Grumman, Airbus Australasia; representatives from Defence Export Controls, Department of Defence; and many more.
RECENT PROGRESS
Williams updated delegates on the activities and growth of the Australian space industry since the foundation of the Australian Space Agency in 2018, noting that Australia has over 600 space organisations working directly in the sector and has seen around $3 billion in investment (of which two thirds has come from the government).
“These are impressive figures given the short period of time we’re assessing,” she said. “This year we saw a series of NASA launches from the Northern Territory, representing the first time the agency has launched from a commercial spaceport outside the United States. We’re also on the way to improv- ing location-based capabilities for Australasia. We’re seeing ASA grant recipients begin to scale, driving new investment rounds and new contracts. We’re establishing international partnerships, seeing Australian payloads launched into space; as a sector, we’re scaling.”
ABOVE: NASA’s Space Launch System rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft launches on the Artemis I flight test in November 2022