Sky no limit as satellite start-up Inovor Technologies shoots for the stars

Internships and work experience programs provide a chance for space start-up Inovor Technologies to attract the best and brightest young minds to be involved in its expanding universe.

The sky is far from the limit for South Australian aerospace start-up Inovor Technologies and its workforce of nearly 50 scientists and engineers.

Founded in 2015 by Dr Matthew Tetlow, today Inovor is designing, building, manufacturing, and testing its Australian-owned satellite technologies in the heart of Adelaide’s CBD at the Lot Fourteen innovation precinct.

Having established an early name for itself as a leader in defence technologies and electronic warfare, Inovor is helping Australian Government and commercial clients realise their sovereign ambitions in the space domain.

For Dr Tetlow, starting his own space company meant he could elevate Australia’s top minds to the forefront of the nation’s innovation sector.

“Signing our first contract in 2018 to build a satellite for Australia’s leading science and technology agency, the CSIRO, was a gamechanger for the company,” says Dr Tetlow.

“We had to ramp up our personnel, and we’re probably at about 47 staff now with another job ad going out soon, so we’re expanding and hoping to get more space at Lot Fourteen so we can grow even bigger. Many of our staff have graduated from, or are still studying, in the uni precinct next door.”

Dr Matt Tetlow, of Inovor Technologies. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

Inovor Technologies this year signed up to its fifth satellite build, this time for the South Australian government.

“Essentially we operate two ways,” Dr Tetlow says. “The first is somebody comes to us and says ‘we want you to fly this payload into space’ and we’ll build the spacecraft around that – integrate it, test it, write the software. They just want the data; we manage everything else.

“And we also have two missions of our own, where we’re selling the service. One of them is in space traffic management and the other is in smart Earth imaging which is taking images of the Earth and adding value, such as detecting changes, assessing crops, or even finding particular objects.”

Inovor Technologies is the only company of its type in Australia. As well as jobs, Dr Tetlow’s passion for Australian-built also translates into business along the local supply chain.

“We design the electronics, have them manufactured locally, design the mechanics – also manufactured locally – then write all the software which knits it all together.

“So it’s really the full gamut of development spectrum, encompassing engineering through to application development, space and project management.”

Matt Vianello, Lachlan Holden and Natasha Moy were 2020-2021 summer interns at Inovor Technologies. All are University of Adelaide students. Vianello and Holden now work part-time wat the company while Moy has secured a job as a communicator at the Australian Space Agency’s new Space Discovery Centre.

For South African-born Dr Tetlow, who holds a mechanical engineering degree and a PhD in aerospace engineering, attracting the best and brightest minds is vital.

In keeping with the company’s focus on developing Australian talent, Inovor Technologies offers both work experience for secondary school students, as well as annual three-month summer internships for university students to help foster new scientists and engineers.

Internship applications open in August, for a December start.

It also supports the Andy Thomas Space Foundation, which offers a range of scholarships and educational opportunities in the space industry for Australians.

Dr Matt Tetlow, of Inovor Technologies. Picture: Matt Turner

“There’s a real interest in space so we have exceptionally good graduates and undergraduates applying,” Dr Tetlow says.

“We have the best educated people in the world and this fantastic pool of young talent is just what builds businesses like ours. We’re in a really good position in Australia to have access to well-educated smart, driven, emotionally intelligent people.”

And the quickly evolving North Terrace hub, Lot Fourteen, is key to the company’s development.

“It’s a really good ecosystem to catch up with people ... it’s good just to sit down and talk about things that might be going well or not so well,” he laughs. “We might not have the answers but just to be able to talk to people about the same sort of problems is always useful.”