The space industry has taken an important leap forward in the Northern Territory with the release of the Territory Space Strategy 2022-26.
The Territory Government has released a new space strategy which will capitalise on the Northern Territory’s strategic advantages to attract investment and create local jobs.
The strategy builds on the success of Territory Space industry 2020 and establishes a vision for the Northern Territory to be recognised as the home of high altitude pseudo-satellites in the Indo-Pacific region, Australia’s premier space launch location and a leading regional centre for ground station facilities.
Already in the Territory we have seen The Centre for Appropriate Technology’s wholly-owned subsidiary CfAT Satellite Enterprises become the host of two new ground stations in 2020, with the company now developing a master plan to facilitate further investment.
Equatorial Launch Australia established its commercial launch facility – the Arnhem Space Centre – near Nhulunbuy, and it is now ready to service the commercial, research and government sectors.
NASA is launching three sounding rockets from the Arnhem Space Centre in June and July this year, its first from a commercial spaceport outside the US.
A number of international satellite companies are also exploring the possibility of a location in the Northern Territory for their southern hemisphere ground station facilities.
In March, Telstra and OneWeb announced they will expand their presence in the satellite telecommunications market and build and maintain three new dedicated teleports across Australia. One of these sites will be at Tivendale with the go-live date planned in July.
To help unlock new growth opportunities and space investment in the Territory, Geoscience Australia and the Northern Territory Government have partnered to deliver Earth Observation for the Northern Territory (EO4NT), a $200,000 demonstrator grant program.
EO4NT aims to provide seed funding to private sector companies to develop products and services that solve challenges in the NT’s agribusiness and fisheries, mining and government services sectors.
Companies can access grants to help them develop earth observation-powered solutions that enhance business productivity and performance, or overcome business problems from these sectors.
Applications close on 27 June 2022.
