Courtesy Nova
 
The agreement, announced at the UK Space Conference last month (September) is set to further the ambitions of the Australian and UK space agencies laying the foundations for negotiations around space-related business opportunities under potential UK-Australia trading arrangements.

 
Dr Graham Turnock, CEO of the UK Space Agency said: “The UK’s space heritage has strong links to Australia, with the first British rockets lifting off from Woomera in the 1950s, and we are committed to strengthening our friendship and partnership.”
 
“A Space Bridge agreement will bring significant benefits to both our thriving space industries, facilitating new trade and investment opportunities and the exchange of knowledge and ideas.”
 
Joint work is already ongoing between the UK and Australia in space sector development, with the launch last year of the Surrey Satellite NovaSAR, which uses radar to view the Earth through cloud cover. The satellite will share 10% of its data with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia.
 
Dr Megan Clark AC, Head of the Australian Space Agency said: “This latest agreement builds on a number of recent international agreements that are positioning Australia to play an increasingly important role in the global space industry.”
 
“The Space Bridge will open up new opportunities for Australian space businesses to access the global space sector through future trade agreements. This is an important step in the Agency’s goal to transform and grow the Australian space industry.”
 
As a key solutions and services provider to the space sector in both Australia and the United Kingdom, Nova has declared its keen interest and strong support for this relationship and has identified the ‘Space Bridge’ as a critical mechanism to share its capabilities across both countries.
 
Stephen Camporeale, CEO at Nova Europe said: “We are looking forward to sharing our capabilities in aerospace test as well as space and safety standardisation with our Australian business. And, to presenting Nova’s capabilities in autonomous mining, geospatial data processing, small smart satellites and southern hemisphere satellite ground stations.”
 
“The Space Bridge will provide a strong platform to showcase these unique capabilities.”