Page 70 - Australian Defence Magazine November 2022

70 FROM THE SOURCE ADAM GILMOUR
NOVEMBER 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
Having said that, it’s a lot less hassle to have one customer buying a whole launch vehicle. You deal with one customer and one set of paperwork goes into the Space Agency. But one of the things I think is crazy about the current regulations is that the launch vehicle provider has the responsibility to get the payload approved by the Agency. In every other country, it is the payload provider who gets their own Agency approval and shows it to the launch operator. So, if I sign on 10 or 15 different customers, I’ve got to get 10 or 15 different
“OVER THE LAST FEW MONTHS, WE HAVE BEEN GOING GANGBUSTERS ON TESTING”
approvals from the Agency, which makes no commercial sense.
ADM: Why does Australia seem to try these different regulatory models? GILMOUR: I think it’s just a matter of education. There wasn’t enough due diligence done early on when the regulations were created. In fact, a lot of the launch-related regulations predate the Space Agency. I’m not too
upset because I have faith that the Agency is going to fix these issues through time. They’re responding to feedback and while it might take longer than I hope, I think the commercial and operating environment for companies like us will change for the better.
ADM: Since the Agency started up, how do you think the environment for space industry in Australia has changed? GILMOUR: There’s a heck of a lot more activity now. There are about four or five companies that have raised significant venture capital since the Space Agency was formed. There are probably at least another four or five decent companies that haven’t raised venture capital yet but probably will, who are developing reasonably good capability. I wouldn’t be surprised to see 10 venture-backed Australian space companies in the next two years, and that’s basically a pipeline of capital. Space is not cheap, so it’s good to have private capital in addition to government funding and contracts.
For example, Blackbird invested in Gilmour and in Fleet
Space even before the Agency was established. I said to Blackbird then that we’d still make good money without government funding because we’re globally focused. The formation of the Space Agency just gave us more impetus.
ADM: Is the Australian Space Agency moving more in the NASA direction, with greater money and leadership? GILMOUR: I’ve always said, even in the early days, that our Space Agency could be like NASA without actually being NASA. You could cut the money, divide it by 10, and still be very productive. In fact, you could almost divide it by 50 and still be very productive, but do the things that NASA does well – technology leadership, projects that get a lot of people together and push the frontiers of technology, STEM outreach, all that kind of stuff. I understand that when the Agency first started with 20 employees, they
GILMOUR SPACE