5 minute read
EDITOR'S DESK
Welcome to this special edition for the 40th Space Symposium, Colorado Springs, USA and announcing our inaugural Indo-Pacific Robotics, Autonomy, AI and Cyber (IPRAAC) Conference and Exhibition, an official adjacent event to the International Astronautical Congress, Sydney 2025.
This edition recognises our National Sponsors, Curtin University, Fugro SpAARC and our strategic partnerships with the International Astronautical Federation, SIA – India, Space Faculty, International Optical Technologies Association and the Andy Thomas Space Foundation.
To propel the Indo-Pacific region’s robotics and remote operations capabilities to orbital heights, writes Dharshun Sridharan, there is an opportunity to leverage Australia’s unique strengths – its harsh environments, vast distances, and now its space infrastructure. The next generation of rovers, drones, and autonomous systems that will explore the Moon, Mars and beyond could very well be a joint Indo-Pacific effort, assembled from many sources but proven on Australian soil.
This edition highlights the Indo-Pacific as a unique region for the global space industry. With successful moon missions from India, China and a world leading number of launch missions from New Zealand, there is aspiring space activities from Japan, Korea, Australia and regionally with Southeast Asia. Singapore recently doubled down to be a regional industry hub, announcing an additional USD45 million over two years and signing letters of intent with the European Space Agency (ESA) and launching an Earth Observation Initiative.
ESA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have extended their cooperation to 2027 on using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites in Earth science and applications. This reflects the extension of the operational life of the ALOS-2 mission, and the agencies signed a new ten-year framework agreement for a strategic partnership to develop cooperative activities in Earth observation that contribute to climate action.
Japan’s Ministry of Defense has awarded space servicing company Astroscale Japan a USD48 million contract to develop a responsive space system demonstration satellite prototype. The project, running to March 2028, includes the development and testing of a proto-flight model for a small geostationary demonstration satellite. A future on-orbit demonstration aims to improve autonomous and agile satellite operations and space environment monitoring capabilities while bolstering space operations.
Korea’s Aerospace Administration (KASA) has established a Mars task force in response to the election of US President Donald Trump and the influence of Elon Musk. John Lee, the head of Korea’s state space agency, thinks exploration of Mars will supersede exploration of the Moon as a priority during Trump’s term in the White House and that there is an opportunity for Korea to leap-frog other nation’s space sectors.
Aside from building space ties with the US, Lee has said Korea was on track to have its own reusable space launch vehicle by 2032 and plans to conduct up to six next generation launch vehicle missions by 2035, spending around USD1.38 billion in development.
China’s Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology Ltd (SSST) sent another 18 communication satellites into low-Earth orbit in March 2025. The deployments marked a small step in a far bigger plan to have up to 15,000 satellites in orbit. The satellites hitched a ride into space atop a Long March 8 rocket. The mission, named G60 Polar Group 05, lifted off from the Wenchang Commercial Space Port in Hainan Province. The Ku, Q and V band satellite payload was the fifth batch making up the Spacesail Constellation.
SSST aims to have around 600 satellites in the constellation by the end of 2025. But it wants to more than double that number by the end of 2027. SSST’s longer-term plan is to have 15,000 satellites in orbit and compete with US entities like SpaceX’s Starlink.
China this year also made a satellite to ground station transmission speed breakthrough after successfully conducting its first 100Gbps ultrahigh-speed satellite-to-ground laser transmission test for high-resolution remote sensing imagery.
India’s first Gaganyaan mission, scheduled for 2026, intends to demonstrate its sovereign human spaceflight capability by sending three astronauts to an orbit of 400 kilometres for three days before bringing them back and splashing down in Indian waters. The orbital module will piggyback into space on a domestically developed LVM3 rocket, the workhorse of the India Space Research Organisation (ISRO) space program.
Australian communications networks were used to monitor ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 Moon rover in August 2023. The two countries will now work together in supporting the Gaganyaan mission, as well as other space programs. Australia is looking at contributing an earth observation payload to India’s G20 satellite and has invested USD11.2 to support satellite projects developed by three Australian companies with Indian partners.
The Australian Space Agency has written, and re-written rules making launch and returns both safe and commercially sustainable and in 2024 ratified the Australia-US Technology Safeguards Agreement (TSA). Recent successes include the Varda W-2 mission returning to Southern Launch’s Koonibba test range in South Australia and Gilmour Space Technologies is scheduling their maiden launch of Eris, the first Australian-designed and built rocket intended for orbit from Queensland.
Highlighting the launch opportunities for Australia, Rocket Lab successfully conducted its 60th Electron rocket launch earlier this year from New Zealand’s North Island, its second launch of the year at the time. The ‘Fasten Your Space Belts’ mission lifted off from Rocket Lab’s Mahia Launch Complex on February 19. Onboard was a Gen-3 satellite for BlackSky’s Earth-imaging satellite constellation. It is the first of multiple Gen-3 launches Rocket Lab will undertake for BlackSky. The NASDAQ-listed company has its origins in Auckland and is intended to beat the sixteen launches in 2024, which will include three launches for the Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space (iQPS), a Japan-based Earth imaging company.
In this addition we also have interviews with agency leaders from the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia alongside Australia and Singapore. As always, we cover the full diversity of the space industry and there is so much more to touch on, including live, embedded content in the digital edition. Enjoy the reading, watching and listening.
