SNAPSHOT: NSW Space Industry

In 2018 the Australian Government launched the Australian Space Agency with the goal of tripling the national space economy from A$4 billion to A$12 billion in 2030 and developing 12,000 additional highly skilled jobs. With the largest portion of the Australian space industry based in NSW, the state is well placed, economically, politically and geographically, to maximise the benefits to business from this new space era.


NSW has the broadest and strongest space capability in Australia. NSW is the only Australian state that boasts capability across every sector of the space industry and across the entire value chain:
• space systems
• launch activities and support services
• ground systems
• space-enabled services and applications
• space activity support services
• space-related research and development
• space education and training
• space-related associations and public information activities.


NSW is Australia’s leading state for most of these space capability segments, with particular strengths in high-tech instrumentation, ground station infrastructure, smart payloads development, space and intra-space communications, and commercialisation of space data. NSW is home to:
• 63% of space legal services
• 60% of satellite broadcast companies
• 50% of space financial services
• 49% of Australia’s satellite communications sector
• 46% of satellite equipment suppliers
• 40% of ground station company owners/operators
• 35% of satellite communication companies
• 30% of satellite equipment manufacturers
• around 30% of Australian staff involved in space activities
• 26% of space technical support and business consultancy services
• the headquarters of six of the eight satellite operators in Australia

NSW SPACE INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY


The Government launched the Space Industry Development Strategy in February 2020. The strategy includes more than $5 million for initiatives that provide the space sector with end-to-end support along the journey from R&D, to commercialisation and first customers, through to scaling up and exports, including:
• A Space Research Network, to be co-hosted by the University of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney and located at Tech Central. The Network will increase research collaboration amongst leading space research institutions and industry.


• The NSW Node of the SmartSat CRC, which enhances collaboration between industry and researchers to create innovative space-enabled solutions to challenges across our economy.


• The Space Qualification Mission, will be delivered by CUAVA (the ARC Training Centre for Cubesats, UAVs and their Applications). The mission will launch NSW-developed space technology payloads into orbit to demonstrate their operation in space and test their commercial plans and services.


• The National Space Industry Hub, will be delivered by Cicada Innovations. The Hub will provide a home for the growing space ecosystem in NSW and beyond by providing office accommodation and opportunities for space startups and SMEs to collaborate with each other and build connections with government, academia, customers, and wider industry as they scale.
 

ENQUIRIES

Jerome Turner

Media Manager

00 3501 3653

[email protected]