Western Australia is world-leading in remote operations for use on-Earth and now works to adapt this expertise for remote operations on the Moon, Mars and beyond.

As the global space sector is growing rapidly, Western Australia has significant geographic advantages with its southern hemisphere location and longitude, ideal weather and radio silence conditions, as well as world leading expertise to join the global space race. 

Almost $700 million has been allocated the space sector by the Australian Government as part of its ambitions to triple the sector’s size to $12 billion and create an additional 20,000 jobs. Part of this funding is $20 million allocated to establish a Space Industries Fund, and $150 million was contributed to support Australian business involvement in NASA’s Moon to Mars mission.

In 2018 the Australian Space Agency was established to further bolster the Australian space sector.

Western Australia has a strong data analytics capability with applications for the agriculture, mining, defence and energy sectors.  The State is world-leading in remote operations for use on-Earth and now works to adapt this expertise for remote operations on the Moon, Mars and beyond.

International engagement and opportunities in Western Australia

There are strong existing links and opportunities on the horizon between Western Australia and the UK and Europe in the space sector.

  • The European Space Agency (ESA) has a deep space ground station in New Norcia located 150 kilometres north of Perth and will construct a second deep space antenna at its New Norcia ground station. 
  • The Swedish Space Corporation is operating the Dongara Satellite Station and the Yatharagga Satellite Station, both located about 400 kilometres northwest of Perth in Western Australia.
  • European multinational aerospace corporation Airbus Defence and Space opened the world’s first High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite flight base in Wyndam, Western Australia, serving as the Zephyr launch site. Zephyr is the world’s leading, solar electric, stratospheric, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. The Zephyr runs exclusively on solar power, above the weather and conventional air traffic.
  • The UK Government’s strong focus on space is cemented in its Industrial Strategy where AI and Robotics for extreme environments are listed as key future challenges.  On 23 February 2021, The UK and Australia signed the Space Bridge partnership to increase knowledge exchange and investment across the two countries’ space sectors.

Investment opportunities

SKA

International Collaboration

Remote Operations and Robotics

Remote Operations and Robotics

Industry Applications

CASE STUDIES

Contact

Kim Moss

Kim Moss

Trade and Investment Manager

+44 (0) 7525 730 683

Sectors

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