Toowoomba space bid: UniSQ to lead $180m iLAuNCH program into space technology, commercial opportunities

Australia is vying to take a share of the trillion-dollar space market and a new program that will be lead by Toowoomba’s university will play a key role in that bid.

Rocket technology could be built here in Toowoomba as the region is set to play a key role in Australia’s quest to make inroads in the global $1 trillion “new space” market.

The University of Southern Queensland will lead the new $180m iLAuNCH Trailblazer program, which will work with two other universities and at least 18 industry partners to develop new technologies and concepts in aerospace.

The move, underpinned with $50m from the federal government’s Trailerblazer University program, will see researchers, engineers and experts collaborate on more than a dozen projects that could deliver billions in commercial benefits.

Executive director Darin Lovett said the projects would hopefully allow Australia to capture two per cent of the burgeoning “space 2.0” market.

Announcing the start of the $180m iLAuNCH space research program are (from left) Senator Anthony Chisholm, iLAuNCH executive director Darin Lovett and UniSQ vice-chancellor Geraldine Mackenzie.

“There’s old space, which is what the big powers have always done, and then there’s this thing called “new space” – that’s the market we want to capture,” he said.

“It’s characterised by venture capital, speed and by new technologies in orbit.

“Australia is in the top 10 of entities trying to place, and we’re looking to emulate the UK which is trying to capture 10 per cent of that $1t market.

“We’re trying to capture two per cent, which is a lot of money.”

Mr Lovett said Toowoomba would be the site of much of the research projects, which would be carried out by homegrown academics as well as high-paid international recruits.

“We’re ranging across the whole gamut of space technologies – everything from tech that will keep a telescope precisely aligned in space, to building rockets here in Toowoomba to launching satellites,” he said.

“(By building rockets in Toowoomba) we mean developing the propellant that will go inside the rocket and the housing, so it’s light and strong, to actually building the tube and putting the payload on top.

“We’re recruiting tens of researchers to add to the programs and those programs will also employ more people, but really it’s the spin-offs.

“We will train up space engineers here, (but) we need speciality and expertise from a growing workforce, PhDs for example, and we’re bringing some of those from overseas as well.”

Senator Anthony Chisholm, who announced the funding in Toowoomba on Thursday, said the federal government was committed to expanding Australia’s space industry.

“We want all of Australia to benefit from our efforts to rebuild manufacturing in this country and this works hand-in-hand with that,” he said.

“I know the industry partnerships that have been developed, and I think this is a great outcome.

“It’s about identifying areas of interest but ones that could be developed further and create commercialisation and job opportunities.

“In space, the country has been underdone but we think this project will fix that.”

His comments come despite Labor axing a $1bn satellite program, announced by the previous government, in this year’s budget.

UniSQ vice-chancellor Geraldine Mackenzie said Toowoomba had the ideal infrastructure and expertise to lead the $180m program.

“It’s transformative, innovative and ambitious and the university is really looking forward to seeing the success of all the projects involved,” she said.

“This is a $50m funding initiative, the program was announced by the previous government and we spent three months putting together our application with our university and industry partners.

“It’s to be very much a collaboration with industry and the idea is to commercialise and develop projects that are to do with Australia’s space and rocket launch capabilities.”