Airbus supports Australia’s space goal

Brisbane, 20 February 2020 – Airbus announced that it is supporting the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), in a seven-year research programme to develop and strengthen space technologies in Australia. The SmartSat CRC facility was officially launched this week in Adelaide.

Thomas Pfister, Head of Airbus Defence and Space, Australasia, said: “By supporting the Smartsat CRC as a core partner, we want to assist Australia in enhancing its space capabilities and competitiveness. Our investment and first class knowledge sharing will ensure opportunities are created for the next generation of space companies across Australia”.

The SmartSat CRC, the largest space industry-research collaboration in Australia’s history, is helping to develop the county’s space industry, having already raised AUD245 million from more than 100 organisations, the Australian Government and industry funding. This investment is targeted at advanced telecommunications, intelligent satellite systems, Earth observation and remote sensing analytics.

Teaming with Airbus, SmartSat CRC will capitalise on Airbus’ expertise and funding to strengthen sovereign space capabilities, unlocking significant opportunities to generate new space technologies. The aim is to enable Australia to benefit from the 9.5% growth rate across the global space industry, compared to the global economy growth of 2.5%.

A key aim for the Airbus partnership with the SmartSat CRC is to help develop small medium enterprises (SMEs) in space and contribute to achieving the Australian Space Agency’s goal of generating an extra 20,000 jobs by 2030. 

@AirbusSpace