Adelaide start-up Fleet set to launch two satellites into orbit

ADELAIDE start-up Fleet Space Technologies is counting down to the launch of Australia’s first commercial nanosatellites.

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ADELAIDE company Fleet Space Technologies says it’s all systems go to the launch of Australia’s first commercial nanosatellites.

Fleet chief executive officer Flavia Tata Nardini said the Centauri I and II satellites — about the size of a shoebox — will be in space by the end of the year.

“When a satellite goes up there … there’s a lot of pieces of the puzzle coming together,” she said.

Flavia Tata Nardini holds a nanosatellite. Picture: Bianca Di Marchi

“The satellite itself, the team, the software, all the regulations. SA and Australia in general helped us … with all these entities.

“The countdown is on! These are the first two commercial satellites that Australia will launch.”

She said it would “power the next industrial revolution”.

They are the first of an armada of 100 nanosatellites Fleet is planning to launch then monitor from Mission Control in Beverley.

Ms Nardini told The Advertiser Fleet has already set up the software for the IoT using other satellites, but is now building their own infrastructure to have more control and bring costs down.

In true space tradition, they will carry a plaque made of Australian gold with maps and the Southern Cross, with a nod to Aboriginal astronomy.

The plaques also carry a Herman Melville quote from Moby Dick:

“I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas …”

The technology will be used for the Internet of Things, which is billed as “the next giant leap in human civilisation”.

It allows objects to be connected and monitored via space; for example, farmers can use it to track individual cattle and businesses can use it to track every element of their supply chain.

The IoT will also be a tool to tackle extreme weather events and environmental disasters.

C1 and C2 now have launch contracts with Spaceflight and SpaceX.

She described the launch — which will be from California — as a complicated process but one she hopes will get easier once Australia’s National Space Agency is underway.

“With the space agency it will be way easier. Maybe we’ll have a rocket launch in Australia one day!”

The Agency will formally begin on July 1.