National Space Agency details announced today, plan for 20,000 jobs and income one day of $12 billion

AUSTRALIA could triple its income from the space industry to $12 billion and create 20,000 jobs under an ambitious vision released by the Federal Government today.

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AUSTRALIA could triple its income from the space industry to $12 billion and create 20,000 jobs under an ambitious vision released by the Federal Government today.

The plan for the Australian Space Agency will talk about the inspiration of space, interplanetary missions, the colonisation of planets beyond Earth, and the possibility of alien life — but its focus will be firmly on earthly money and jobs.

South Australia has been the most vocal advocate for a local Space HQ, but it’s understood the agency will initially set up in Canberra.

The second Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellite, Sentinel-3B, lifts off aboard a rocket at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. Picture: Stephane Corvaja/ESA via Getty

Premier Steven Marshall and Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas have pledged to work together to make sure SA is at the centre of the plans.

Federal Jobs and Innovation Minister Michaelia Cash will release a report from the Expert Reference Group outlining Australia’s future role in a global space economy, along with the Government’s response to that report.

A total of $300 million was earmarked in last week’s Budget to kick off the Agency, which will officially open on July 1.

Most of that money will be to set up world-leading satellite technology, while $41 million will be for the Agency.

Of that $41 million, $15 million will get Australia a seat at the table with international space agencies such as NASA for joint missions and other partnerships. Senator Cash said Australia had “an extraordinary opportunity” to get a bigger share of the global $450 billion industry.

“Space technologies are not just about taking people to the moon, they open up opportunities for many industries, including communications, agriculture, mining, oil and gas,” she said.

“An Australian space agency will support the long-term development of space technologies, grow our domestic space industry and secure our place in the global space economy.

“(The) Turnbull Government is allowing businesses across the economy to prosper, enter new markets and create jobs.”

The Sentinel-3 satellite in space over the Earth. AFP / European Space Agency

Former CSIRO boss Megan Clark, who chaired the expert group, will lead the agency.

In the introduction to the report, seen by The Advertiser, she writes that the global space industry was going through the most rapid reinvention “since people first walked on the moon”.

She said the ambitious strategy would see the existing industry triple to up to $12 billion a year by 2030, generating thousands of jobs.

“No other industry can inspire nations quite like space, where human ambition can set its sights on interplanetary missions, colonisation beyond earth, and the possibility of finding new life,” she wrote.

“We can dream this big because of the space-based technologies that have connected the world in unprecedented ways, and in the coming decades Australia has the opportunity to become a global leader in pushing Earth links with space even further.”