Australia’s Space Policies and Strategies to Develop the Space Ecosystem
- Paper number
IAC-22,E3,IPB,3,x73491
- Author
Ms. Stephanie Wan, United States, Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC)
- Year
2022
- Abstract
Since the exciting announcement on the establishment of the Australian Space Agency in during the 68th International Astronautical Congress in 2017 hosted in Adelaide, Australia, there has been rapid development to create the necessary governance structure and priorities for the nation. While Australia cannot fully be considered an emerging space nation, with their contributions to support the Apollo moon landings back in 1969, the country has been seemingly dormant in cultivating their space activities until domestic thought leaders utilized the major space conference to open the nation’s eyes on the impact of the space sector to the local economy. Over the past five years, a deluge of strategy and policy documents, from the local state and territory, defence space, and civilian space sectors have contributed to the excitement in growing the space ecosystem of the nation. Each document focuses on opportunities to bring a piece of the space action for their local region, highlighting the benefits of their geographical location to workforce talent. Additionally, the multilateral and bilateral agreements, such as the AUKUS (Australia-United Kingdom-United States) agreements, to the Quad partnership (Australia-India-Japan-United States) continue to press the strategic importance of space technologies in trade relationships. The continuous mantra of tripling the size of the sector to $12bn and growing an additional 20,000 to the space workforce by 2030, has led the charge to bring the whole of government together in meeting these targets over the next eight years. In addition to the policies released, there have been announcements at the state and federal level that continue to top the previous gesture of support. With the most recent (February 2022) announcement of the federal government that it will invest $65 million in the nation's space industry to bolster sovereign manufacturing capabilities and eventually send an Australian to space, the regulatory framework will also need to follow suit, as well as continuous support of the growing Australian space companies that are ready to expand their capabilities abroad, as well as bringing overseas capabilities to Australia. This paper will provide an overview of the current Australian space sector landscape, the government incentives to develop the local commercial sector as the national leads for space exploration, as well as enabling factors and recommendations that foster the strategic growth of Australia’s space ecosystem into 2030’s and beyond.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)