Australia’s largest spacecraft manufacturing facility will be built in Sydney’s south and scale up to producing 20 spacecraft a year under a partnership between Space Machines Company and the University of Technology Sydney.
The agreement to be announced Tuesday marks a significant development for the local space sector and will see Space Machines Company (SMC) double down on local design, testing and production for a growing market.
Satellite manufacturing is a sovereign capability Australia must secure, given rising geopolitical uncertainty and churning global trade rules, SMC chief executive Rajat Kulshrestha told InnovationAus.com.
“I think that something has changed fundamentally in the world order. And I believe that we need to focus on some of these strategic areas,” he said.
“We’ve got to get speed and production… Production has a quality of its own. It starts to build capability and deterrence.”
Space Machines Company has already built and successfully launched Australia’s largest private satellite, but lost communication with its Optimus craft after it reached orbit last year.
Its new Optimus Viper craft is also designed to inspect the growing numbers of satellites on orbit, either to help maintain the assets or gather intel on adversaries.
The second-generation craft is smaller, cheaper and can be made more quickly to take advantage of falling launch costs and a growing demand from Defence and national security customers.
The Sydney company is trying to beat out mostly North American competitors with more “distributed capability” – more spacecraft in orbit or quickly launchable – and “low capability per dollar”.
SMC says it can offer its inspections for between $3 million and $4 million, which is significantly lower than current costs.
At those prices and with a growing reliance on space assets, there will be plenty of demand, Mr Kulshrestha said.
“Currently there’s about $1.3 trillion worth of space assets in orbit. That’s almost the size of the oil and gas industry. If you think about not being able to protect or maintain or even inspect the entire oil and gas industry, it really starts to talk to the resilience issue,” he said.
In a bid to meet the demand, SMC will start producing Optimus Vipers at an Optimus Factory (OF-1) located at UTS Tech Lab near Sydney airport from early next year.
Five Vipers will be in production at once at the facility, which will add an 800-square-metre spacecraft production space and house Australia’s largest satellite Assembly, Integration and Test cleanroom.
The company wants to scale up to around 20 units a year, but refinements and automation could see production grow to hundreds of units a year, Mr Kulshrestha said.
“Automation is the next step, but this is really about building an industrial base,” he said. “We’re starting to get a more resilient supply chain, we’re starting to manufacture and vertically integrate parts that we’re building for the spacecraft here.”
The new facility also offers an expanded research and development opportunity and a chance too shape the growing local space industry, UTS pro vice-chancellor for business creation and major facilities) Professor Michael Blumenstein said.
“It also provides UTS students and researchers with access to leading-edge technology and real-world experience, placing them at the forefront of space innovation.”
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