Space association calls for lower barriers to satellite launches

The Space Industry Association of Australia has called on the federal government to reduce the regulatory burden on space activities, particularly regulations around the launch of emerging small satellites both overseas and within Australia. The SIAA raised its concerns in a submission to the current review of the Space Activities Act.

One of the major issues raised was that Australia is one of the few countries to explicitly impose a licensing process, in the form of an overseas launch certificate, for the launch of Australian space objects from outside Australian territory. According to the SIAA, this adds additional regulatory burden and cost compared with manyother jurisdictions.

     The association said that Australian satellite owners seeking to launch their payloads overseas faced a regulatory burden that could be disproportionate to the size and cost of their projects, while also duplicating approvals and indemnity arrangements required in the country of launch.

Similarly, the SIAA suggested that the regulatory requirements for launching in Australia imposed a higher burden than many other countries and would inhibit rather than enhance innovation and entrepreneurial ventures in launch services from Australia. It found that the issues with the implementation of the current act and regulations were numerous and varied.

“They range from aspects that require significantly higher levels of reliability than in other jurisdictions, to effective limits on the number of launches per year based on the proscribed methodology, to the potential for certain flight paths and possibly launch sites to be rendered unusable if downstream commercial developments are given priority rights after launch operations have been established,” the submission stated. “All of these serve as significant disincentives for launch operators considering Australia as a base for their operations.”

The SIAA called on the government to benchmark its legislative and regulatory framework against the leading jurisdictions in the space field to ensure that the local regulatory framework for space activities is comparable to and if possible better than other jurisdictions.

“Creation of a favourable environment for space innovation is a necessary condition for space innovation to flourish. While a favourable environment is not by itself sufficient to guarantee success, its absence, particularly if due to onerous regulation, will almost certainly guarantee failure,” the submission stated.

According to a recent report by Asia Pacific Aerospace Consultants, Australia has between 9,500 – 11,500 people directly employed in space activities. This generates between A$3-4 billion per annum and has capabilities in every major sector of space activity including satellite construction and operation. There are currently at least a dozen smallsat/cubesat/nanosats planned or under development in Australia.

The review of Australian space legislation was kicked off in October last year by minister for industry, innovation and science Christopher Pyne. An early government consultation phase has now been completed, with space law expert Steven Freeland to oversee the next stage of the review and advise the government.

Geoff Long, Commsday