Australian Space Agency

[ngatimozart]

There was an interesting article in this weekends Australian by Jess Malcolm on why a new space treaty with the USA fails to deliver for the local space industry. Here are some pertinent quotes -
"Queensland-based space manufacturer Adam Gilmour, chief executive of Gilmour Space Technologies, has blasted the agreement, saying it will not actually benefit the domestic industry. Mr Gilmour said only US rockets will be able to be launched as part of the deal, and no Australians will be able to help facilitate the process as they would not be able to operate within the area to protect US technology."
"The Albanese government has been under scrutiny over its handling of space policies in recent months, with The Australian last year revealing Defence had spent $40m of taxpayers’ money on two satellites it did not know what to do with. The satellites will have to go into storage where they will rapidly deteriorate unless a use can be found for them. It also follows the axing of a $1.2bn NASA-backed satellite program by Mr Husic, who tried to hide the decision from the US government until hours before it was announced."
It seems Labor does not really share the previous governments vision for the potential of an Australian space industry.
Link - behind a paywall

I haven't read the space agreements that NZ has with the US, but our launch facility is privately owned with Rocket Lab certified to launch US military payloads, and Rocket Lab will only launch certain US military payloads from NZ (Rocket Lab choice). Whilst Rocket Lab is US owned, it has a sizeable Kiwi management contingent and sizeable Kiwi based facilities, mostly in Auckland.

I think that any private Australasian space company has to be aligned with one or two local universities for research, technical and academic support. In our case we have a new horizontal launch facility just outside Christchurch which is fully supported by the University of Canterbury who have had an active interest in space and rocketry for decades. We now have many bright young things taking up space related study and subsequent employment. The real beauty about Rocket Lab, Dawn Aerospace etc., is that these bright young things can stay within NZ without having to go to foreign shores to follow their space related desires.

Another point is that both Australia and NZ are stable liberal democratic nations and we both have areas where we can build and operate space launch facilities in the Southern hemisphere that cover most of the desirable launch perimeters, from equatorial launches to polar launches. Suitably sighted they don't have sizeable populations within the launch down range areas. For example, for some launches from Canaveral Space Centre in Florida, some trajectories require a dog leg to avoid other nations and populations. That dog leg involves more fuel and manoeuvring that is desired. The PRC is landlocked on two sides, and the Europeans have to launch out of South America.

 

[justinterested]

Gilmour Space Technologies is Australia’s only sovereign orbital rocket company. I think Adam Gilmour fears that with this new space agreement, his company may go the way of Rocket Lab. Rocket Lab, founded by New Zealand commercial launch pioneer Peter Beck, had successfully sent payloads to orbit from a spaceport near Auckland, but growing venture capital dollars from US investors meant it became a US company and moved its headquarters to California.
The Australian government is saying our deal with the US is better than the NZ deal and according to this link, "The New Zealand-US TSA includes a quite onerous commitment. The New Zealand government had to give the US government assurances that it was not developing or seeking to acquire any Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) category 1 rocket systems and would not do so into the future without first consulting with the US government. There is a sovereignty issue here."
It all seems to revolve around US restrictions and the meaning of the word sovereign.
I vaguely remember some defence companies having somewhat similar concerns with AUKUS and US restrictions on selling their products to other countries.

 

[OldTex]

The text of the TSA between Australia and the USA appears to be of a similar nature to ITAR in its likely effects and restrictions. The significant aspect of the TSA is the enforcement of the MTCR (Missile Technology Control Regime) provisions aimed at preventing the proliferation of offensive missiles (such as SRBM, MRBM etc). Any effects on Australian space companies arising from accessing venture capital are likely to be commercial in nature and not based in any way on provisions of the TSA.