Italy and Australia have committed to pursue joint research and development, academic exchange and industry collaboration in the space sector after an agreement was signed between the SA Government and the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI).
SA has recently launched a space innovation and growth strategy and is home to the Woomera Test Range and 60 space-related organisations.
The State Minister for Defence Industries Martin Hamilton-Smith said SA led the way in the development of Australia’s space economy.
“Our vision is to position South Australia as a vibrant hub for future space activity and industry development,” he said.
South Australia’s place in the international space industry was cemented earlier this year after a successful test flight of an experimental rocket in the HIFiRE (Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation) program.
“The success of this test launch takes us one step closer to the realisation of hypersonic flight,” Chief Defence Scientist Dr Alex Zelinsky said after the launch in May 2016.
Each year space experts from across the world meet at the University of SA’s Southern Hemisphere Space Studies Program to discuss challenges and opportunities on offer in the space industry.
Speakers included Alex Grant, whose South Australian company Myriota is developing tiny devices to transmit data to and from remote locations, Flavia Tata Nardini, a former European Space Agency propulsion engineer, who founded Launchbox in 2014 to change the way people understood space science, and Brett Burford, the founder of AU Launch Services, an Adelaide-based consulting group that works with CubeSat manufacturers, owners and operators and serves as a single point of contact for clients.
Nova Systems, a project management company with large defence contracts, is also in talks with Italian space companies.
Adelaide will also host more than 3,000 delegates from around the world at the 68th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in September 2017.