The Australian Space Agency and SmartSat CRC officially opened their headquarters at Lot Fourteen in Adelaide on 19th February 2020, reaching an exciting milestone in its mission to grow the economy and create new jobs.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Space Agency had made outstanding progress since being established by the Coalition in July 2018 and was now ready to settle into its permanent home in the heart of the Lot Fourteen precinct in Adelaide.

“The Australian Space Agency is central to my Government’s vision to secure more jobs and a larger share of the growing space economy – forecast to be over $1 trillion in size around the globe by 2040,” the Prime Minister said.

“Space captures the imagination and inspires us all. It develops new technologies that improve life on Earth and it offers huge economic and job opportunities.

“That’s why we’re investing almost $700 million into the space sector, including $150 million into Australian businesses so they can pick up more work and support more jobs by partnering with NASA’s Moon to Mars initiative.”

Minister Karen Andrews said “… all the great things that can come from space that help us in our everyday lives. So many of you would have used GPS to get here today, you would use GPS on a daily basis, most likely. That’s the information that comes from space. That’s the things that we need to focus on, how we’re going to make life easier for everyday Australians, for our businesses, for farmers, for our producers. We’ll be looking at how we can harness all of the technology to make sure that we are better prepared for the next bushfire season. We’ll be looking at earth observations. We’ll be looking at what our terrain is showing. There are so many fabulous things out there that are part of space and we intend to capture each and every one of those of amazing things.”

South Australian Premier Steven Marshall said South Australia was now at the forefront of the nation’s space endeavours.

“We are now, without a doubt, the space capital of the nation,” said the Premier. Young people from across the state have the opportunity to seize incredible jobs across the sector, right here in South Australia”.

“We’ve secured the headquarters of the Australian Space Agency, SmartSat CRC, Mission Control and the Space Discovery Centre. There’s an ambition to triple the size of Australia’s space economy by 2030, and Adelaide is going to be right at the heart of this monumental project”.

“Young South Australians can look up at the stars and genuinely find opportunities right here in this state to pursue their dreams.”

Professor Andy Koronios, at his address to the celebration event held at Lot Fourteen said;

“It was a thought and a journey that my colleagues and I began 2 ½ years ago to bring together our research and industry partners in a coalition to work collaboratively on some of the most advanced, most exciting space technology ever created in this country.

This is a significant milestone for us….. Our partners have invested in us and given us their support. Our government has funded us generously and given us the opportunity to contribute in building our space industry. We will seize this opportunity  and work assiduously with passion, persistence and dogged determination to contribute to Australia’s capability in space and to develop Australian space technologies .

But our mission won’t be judged by the technologies alone. We will be judged by the impacts we make to everyday life. Clever innovations only matter if they deliver practical benefits.  Working closely with our industry partners, we will ensure that whatever technology we develop will help meet some of Australia’s biggest challenges and we will work to deliver commercial value for our partners and wealth for our nation.

We will not try to satisfy our partners, we will work to amaze them!

Together with the Australian Space Agency and this nation’s booming space start-up sector, SmartSat is excited to help foster a self-sustaining Australian space industry that will continue to be its own source of inspiration into the future”.