Culture

Australia’s Finally Getting Its Own Space Agency And Bill Nye Is Proud Of Us

Hell yeah.

by Sam Langford  25 September 2017
australian space agency

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

Good news, space fans: Australia’s finally about to get its own space agency! Think NASA, but distinctly Australian, which is an interesting image we’ve handily illustrated above for you.

The government announced the plans this morning at the opening of the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide (yeah, there’s a massive space conference in Adelaide of all places. Who knew?). The timing of the announcement meant a lot of scientific big dogs were watching, with Bill Nye the Science Guy and astronaut Chris Hadfield amongst those who tweeted their congratulations.

We don’t know much about what the agency will do so far, just that it was strongly recommended by the government review into Australia’s space capabilities that began in July.

Acting Minister for Innovation Michaelia Cash released a statement this morning saying the agency “will be the anchor for our domestic coordination and the front door for our international engagement”, which aside from saying nothing also misses several opportunities for space-themed metaphors.

Related

What we do know is why the agency is necessary: the international space industry is absolutely blazing along to the tune of $420 billion, and Australia wants to tap into some of that growth. It’s been suggested — notably by tech billionaire Elon Musk — that growing Australia’s space industry could provide thousands of jobs.

Anyway, it’s about time we looked into a space agency of our own — after New Zealand announced it was getting a space agency last year, Australia and Iceland were the only two OECD countries left without one.