Outback To Orbit

Capitalising on numerous advantages – including an expansive landscape and ease of access to desirable orbits – Australia is growing its reputation as a valuable launch and return destination for the international space community. Southern Launch and Gilmour Space are two companies leading the way with support from our Agency. In this episode, we talk with them about their growing offering of comm...

The next decade will see humanity reach further, dig deeper, and discover more about our universe. Australia's space industry is helping to make it happen - and in this episode of Outback To Orbit, you'll meet two Aussie companies headed for the Moon, with support from our grant programs. Our featured guests for this episode are Matthew Suntup (Advanced Navigation) discussing his company’s trailbl...

Welcome to a brand new season of Outback to Orbit, which comes as we build up to the 2025 International Astronautical Congress (IAC). It's the biggest space industry event on the planet - and this year, it’s happening in Sydney. To mark the occasion, we’re looking at some key space capabilities Australia has to show the world, and we begin with the 2025 IAC theme of 'Sustainable Space: Resilient E...

The idea of this podcast series is to highlight how Australian space technology valuably intersects with our lives and the services we use down here on Earth - so, to wrap things up neatly for Season 1, we’re looking at some Australian companies that have found ways to ‘spin out’ their space technology to serve needs on Earth, or ‘spin in’ to the space industry by pushing their Earth-based technol...

Launched in December 2023, SpIRIT is a landmark Australian nanosatellite. It’s a collaborative industry mission led by the University of Melbourne, bringing together some of the most advanced satellite technology Australia currently has to offer. It's supported by close to $7 million of grant funding from the Australian Space Agency. And it’s also an international cooperation - SpIRIT is carrying...

Did you know that shooting laser beams up into space is a hugely powerful way of exchanging data between spacecraft and Earth? It's called optical communications - and sending messages or pictures or other data through a laser beam is actually a thousand times better than traditional radio communication, because of the much higher frequency. Better yet, it’s happening in Australia right now. The U...

When astronauts base themselves on the Moon and beyond in the coming decades, they’ll need to be fairly self-sufficient with their health and nutrition - which includes finding quick, reliable ways to grow good-quality plants in zero gravity. As such, plant growth in space is a pivotal field for the future of human space exploration, and the lessons we learn from it will also help us improve how w...

There are thousands of satellites and other artificial objects in Earth’s orbit - and that number is constantly growing, as we depend more and more on space technology to support our everyday lives. Managing the traffic is an important part of what's known in the industry as Space Situational Awareness. On this episode, we meet a couple of Australians who are helping to stop space objects crashing...

To kick off Outback To Orbit, we meet a couple of people working to take Australia to the Moon. They’re coming up with brand-new, cutting-edge designs for autonomous rovers - and one of those designs will be chosen to make history later this decade in our nation’s first lunar mission. As part of NASA's Artemis program, the rover mission will support an attempt to collect lunar soil (known as regol...

Welcome to the new podcast from the Australian Space Agency, introducing you to the people and technologies shaping Australia's space future.