Sponsor Spotlight: South Australian Space Industry Centre (SASIC)

Artists impression sasic-lake-eyre-satellite

The South Australian Space Industry Centre, otherwise known as SASIC, is a founding members of the GRAVITY Challenge and a key player in driving Australia’s space industry. We were excited to get their thoughts on space, the GRAVITY Challenge and how they’re working to build a future for space leaders.

The South Australian Space Industry Centre (SASIC) drives space industry innovation, research and entrepreneurial development in South Australia. SASIC is committed to propelling growth in the sector by providing a whole-of-state-government focal point for both the local space industry and international companies. With a team of staff from Defence SA, Department for Trade and Investment, and Department for Innovation and Skills, SASIC coordinates and implements industry and workforce development through initiatives, events, scholarships and an incubator program.

Already home to the Australian Space Agency headquarters, National Mission Control Centre, Australian Space Discovery Centre and more than 80 space-related organisations, South Australia, through the South Australian Space Industry Centre (SASIC) is committed to further growing the local industry and building on the state’s strong history of space activity.

Despite the challenges faced by many industries over the past 18 months, the South Australian space sector has powered on its upward trajectory. With the space sector being labelled a government priority for the state’s economic prosperity and recovery from the fallout of the global coronavirus pandemic, the vision in the Space Sector Strategy is clear – to see South Australia designing, manufacturing, launching, and operating small satellites that deliver actionable, space-derived intelligence for sovereign Australian missions by 2030.

This vision is already being realised with South Australia’s mission to launch its first locally manufactured nanosatellite into low-Earth orbit in mid-2022 on track after successfully completing a preliminary design review.

In addition to manufacturing satellites, South Australia is home to the first two launch facility licences in Australia with local company Southern Launch’s proposal to establish a sub-orbital rocket testing facility receiving the green light by the Australian Space Agency in July. The licence will enable the company to establish a sub-orbital rocket testing facility and if tests are successful, the site could be used for much larger orbital rocket launches in the future.

Australia as a nation has well and truly rocketed into the global space economy over the past few years, and South Australia has been at the forefront of this national growth. South Australia is constant in its support for the national space ecosystem as the possibilities for future generations of local space leaders will be endless.

Of course, we couldn’t meet with SASIC and not ask why they enjoyed being a part of the GRAVITY Challenge program.

One of the key pillars of South Australia’s Space Sector Strategy is to capitalise on the phenomenal opportunities of NewSpace. There is strong potential to boost the productivity and competitiveness of virtually every sector of the broader economy through accurate, timely and easily accessible space-derived data, and the GRAVITY Challenge is an exemplar of this opportunity in action. We are thrilled to support this initiative that brings together the world’s brightest innovators to apply advanced data analytics capability to create solutions to real industry, social and environmental problems.

Find out more about the South Australian Space Industry Centre (SASIC)