WA's space industry gets fed funding boost

The Commonwealth has agreed to give Western Australia's space industry a $6 million funding boost to help it play a key role in the Australian Space Agency.

The federal government has agreed to invest $6 million in Western Australia's space industry so the state can play a significant role in the broader national expansion plan.

Most of the funds will be put towards a robotics and artificial intelligence mission control facility, while the remainder will be spent supporting space data analysis facilities.

The data benefits earth-based areas such as mining, agriculture, emergency services and maritime surveillance, while the mission control facility will work on remotely operating autonomous and robotic systems in space.

The WA government has so far allocated $2 million for its joint work with the Adelaide-based Australian Space Agency and will consider further funding in future budgets.

The ASA was established last year and seeks to triple the size of the nation's space sector, with a total investment commitment to date of $73.2 million.


Share

1 min read

Published

Source: AAP



Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world