Skykraft’s recently revealed launch contract with SpaceX is a harbinger of change for the Australian Space Industry.
Just 10 months away, this single satellite is larger than all previous Australian-built satellites combined and will propel Australia into the global satellite market, with Skykraft’s global Air Traffic Management constellation.
The satellite is designed and built by Skykraft in Canberra, Australia. Using manufacturers in places such as Albury-Wodonga, Melbourne and Queanbeyan, it will be launched from the USA on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in June of next year.
The smallsat constellation technologies underpinning the June 2022 launch positions Skykraft to roll out their commercial Air Traffic Management constellation and also offers unique value and truly sovereign, sustainable capability to upcoming Defence programs, such as Space Domain Awareness (JP 9360), Satellite Communications (JP 9102), and Geospatial Intelligence (Def 799).
Skykraft are bringing along the wider community by offering a program called Skyride that gives innovators, scientists and enthusiasts the opportunity to ride along on this and future launches. This can be for education in universities and schools, or to demonstrate systems in space for commercial or research groups. Demonstrating systems in space using Skyride is an accelerated pathway to attaining NASA Technical Readiness Level 7 or 8.
Skykraft Chief Engineer, Dr. Doug Griffin, said, “This is a great time to be an engineer working in space. We have the technology and tools to build and launch satellites in a much more streamlined way than the past.”