Space Archives

Space

Gilmour Space is hoping this week is finally their chance to make history with a test flight of its Australian-made Eris rocket

Simon Thomsen - July 29, 2025 2 MIN READ

Queensland rocket builder Gilmour Space Technologies is hoping tomorrow will at long last be their chance to launch the first orbital space flight in 50 years from Australia. History was almost made today before the launch attempt for Eris TestFlight1 from the Bowen Orbital Spaceport, about 200km outside Townsville, was scrubbed late on July 29… Read more »

Space

Lost in space: What NZ space researchers are learning from the failed MethaneSat

Nicholas Rattenbury - July 6, 2025 4 MIN READ

Last week’s announcement of the loss of a methane-detecting satellite, just days before New Zealand was meant to take over mission control, is a blow to the country’s space research sector. New Zealand invested NZ$29 million in the MethaneSat mission, built and operated by the US nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund, with a goal of growing… Read more »

Opinion

Starship’s explosions show Elon Musk will boldly go where no rocket builder’s gone before when it comes to failures

Sara Webb - June 2, 2025 4 MIN READ

What goes up must come down, and last week yet another of SpaceX’s Starships, the biggest and most powerful type of rocket ever built, came back down to Earth in spectacular fashion. In the sky above the Indian Ocean, it exploded. This was the ninth test flight for the rocket, and the third catastrophic failure… Read more »

Space

Startups at Sydney’s National Space Industry Hub have raised $56 million and created 160 jobs in the last 4 years

Simon Thomsen - May 27, 2025 3 MIN READ

As taxpayer investments go, the NSW government is on a winner with the National Space Industry Hub, launched in 2021, with every $1 invested in the project resulting in the startups involved attracting $74 in external funding. Cicada Innovations and Investment NSW marked four years of the hub this week with a showcase of the technology involved,… Read more »

Space

Disappointment as Gilmour Space postpones first ever mission to put Australian-made rocket into orbit

Startup Daily - May 16, 2025 2 MIN READ

After a week of excited build up, Queensland’s Gilmour Space Technologies was forced to postpone its mission to send an Australian-made rocket into orbit this week – a feat that would have made history. Gilmour Space’s first launch window opened on Thursday but the rocket stayed silent at the Bowen Orbital Spaceport – about 200km… Read more »

Politics

South Australian Space Industry Centre names Campbell Pegg as its new director of space

Simon Thomsen - April 29, 2025 2 MIN READ

The husband of Australia’s first “Aussie” astronaut, Katherine Bennell-Pegg, has been appointed the new director of space at the South Australian Space Industry Centre (SASIC). Campbell Pegg has spent 15 years in the space industry across five countries, and was most recently assistant director for satellite engineering at Optus. He’s worked in leadership positions across government,… Read more »

Funding

Mining exploration satellite startup pockets $5 million Seed round

Startup Daily - March 4, 2025 < 1 MIN READ

A Melbourne startup following in the footsteps of Adelaide’s Fleet Space has raised $5 million in Seed funding to launch more satellites scanning earth for critical minerals. The raise for Esper was led by Darwin innovation investor Paspalis Capital and Islamic finance firm Hejaz. The capital injection will underpin the launch of the company’s fourth… Read more »

Business

Fleet Space teams up with US hydrogen explorer startup in global hunt for renewable energy

Simon Thomsen - February 25, 2025 2 MIN READ

South Australian satellite exploration startup Fleet Space has partnered with US startup Koloma in the hunt for natural hydrogen around the world. Fleet’s space-based mapping platform, ExoSphere, will be used by Koloma, which has raised US$400 million in venture funding, to generate real-time 3D subsurface imaging of prospective hydrogen-forming geological formations. While many tech companies… Read more »

Business

Gilmour Space’s first rocket launch from Queensland is just weeks away

Startup Daily - February 24, 2025 2 MIN READ

Federal authorities have finally given the green light for Gold Coast rocket builder Gilmour Space Technologies to launch Eris, the first Australian-designed and built rocket for orbit. The space tech startup said the weeks after March 15 are the window for its inaugural flight. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and Airservices Australia signed off on… Read more »

Funding

The Australian government is getting local startups to head to Mars for $3.6 million

Simon Thomsen - February 3, 2025 2 MIN READ

Five Australian startups have scored $3.6 million in Moon to Mars supply chain capability grants as part of NASA’s ambitions to explore beyond the chunk of rock orbiting 384,400km from Earth. South Australian company entX scored $1 million to develop a radioisotope heater unit. The unit will help payloads withstand the extreme low temperatures on… Read more »

Space

Skip to the Moon: the team behind a $42 million Australian Space Agency project to build Australia’s first lunar ‘Roo-ver’ revealed

Simon Thomsen - December 17, 2024 2 MIN READ

A consortium of 21 startups, space and manufacturing companies, mining giant BHP and several universities will collaborate in a project to put an Australian-made rover on the Moon. The ELO2 Consortium, co-led by EPE Oceania and Lunar Outpost Oceania, is part of NASA’s Artemis Moon exploration program. The group has been charged with a $42… Read more »

Funding

Satellite startup Fleet Space orbits $800 million valuation with $150m Series D

Simon Thomsen - December 12, 2024 3 MIN READ

South Australian startup Fleet Space Technologies has raised $150 million in a Series D that values the satellite developer and data analytics platform at more than $800 million. The round was led by Canada’s Teachers’ Venture Growth, the VC arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Existing investors Blackbird Ventures, Hostplus, Horizons Ventures, Artesian Venture Partners,… Read more »

Space

Gilmour Space lands satellite contract with WA’s LatConnect 60 for orbital carbon emissions observations

Simon Thomsen - November 27, 2024 2 MIN READ

Queensland startup Gilmour Space is teaming up with Perth-based Earth observation company LatConnect60 in the second deal involving the rocket builder’s 100-kilogram satellite “bus”, ElaraSat. The collaboration comes just weeks after Gilmour Space landed regulatory approval for the launch of its 23-metres-high Eris rocket in an orbital test flight from its rocket launch pad in… Read more »

Life hacks

The Booker Prize winner, Orbital by Samantha Harvey, is a powerful meditation on our existence and hunger for life beyond Earth

Debra Benita Shaw - November 15, 2024 4 MIN READ

Samantha Harvey’s Orbital has won the 2024 Booker prize. What it so skilfully and ambitiously exposes is the human cost of space flight set against the urgency of the climate crisis. While a typhoon of life-threatening proportions gathers across south-east Asia, six astronauts and cosmonauts hurtle around Earth on the International Space Station. Their everyday… Read more »

Politics

The Australian government has killed off a $7 billion military satellite project, increasing the risk of cyber attacks

David Tuffley - November 6, 2024 3 MIN READ

In a significant blow to Australia’s defence capabilities, the federal government is cancelling what would have been the nation’s largest-ever space project: a $7 billion military satellite communications system. The decision was confirmed in a press statement on Monday. It comes just 18 months after the Albanese government gave the green light to the ambitious… Read more »