Henry Belot reports that Australia will create its own space agency in an attempt to cash in on a $420 billion aeronautical industry and create thousands of new jobs. Most developed nations have a space agency, including New Zealand, and there are concerns Australia may be not be capitalizing on the growing industry. The Federal Government will detail the long-term plans at the 68th International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, where the Opposition will also reveal its own plan.
Acting Industry Minister Michaelia Cash said the sector was growing fast globally, and Australia needed to be a part of it. "A national space agency will ensure we have a strategic long-term plan that supports the development and application of space technologies and grows our domestic space industry," she said. "The agency will be the anchor for our domestic coordination and the front door for our international engagement." Space exploration is just about the purest expression of humanity at its glorious, brilliant best — and it makes sense for Australia to be part of it, Andrew P Street writes. Senator Cash's office said the feedback from a review into the industry had overwhelmingly showed the need for a national space agency.
Astrophysicist Alan Duffy said he hoped the announcement would be a boon for the number of Australian jobs in space. "We have longstanding ties with NASA, exploring space together and generating all of these jobs. And that's the key point of both the Government's and Labor's plans, it is a jobs industry-first agency," he told ABC News Breakfast. "It's designed to create satellites and new uses for the images that come from those satellites, and I don't mean giant, bus-sized satellites of the '60s and '70s. "Thanks to smart phones something the size of a toaster has the same capabilities as some of these historic launches. So we get to space cheaper and we can do more when we're there."
Original working URL: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-25/government-to-establish-national-space-agency/8980268
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