[thorn bird]

From todays Australian

Why am I'm not surprised? or The Kiwi's steal the march..........AGAIN!

When are our numpy politicians going to wake up?


AMOS AIKMAN
NORTHERN CORRESPONDENT

• 7:22PM AUGUST 31, 2020

Three, two, one, blast-off. That’s how it’s supposed to go. But instead, space industry regulators have been “dragging the chain” on critical approvals, endangering record-breaking launches, first-of-a-kind NASA contracts and hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars worth of potential investments, insiders say.
In a pandemic-afflicted world, Australian businesses may be unable to go out, but they can go up. A government report last year forecast that the space sector could generate 20,000 new jobs and add $12b to GDP by 2030.
Australia stood at the forefront of space exploration in the 1950s and ’60s with pioneering work at places like Woomera. But after that it began to languish, some say through government inattention to the vital needs of entrepreneurs and researchers.
One firm seeking to help Australia recapture a leading role and propel its economic recovery is Equatorial Launch Australia, whose boss Carley Scott sounds frustrated.
“You always hear governments say they want projects that are shovel-ready, that ignite national interest, encourage students into STEM, engage people in the bush,” she said. “We are shovel-ready — there’s nothing else stopping us progressing … we’ve got a contract from NASA that we want to deliver on. We just need the (Australian Space) Agency to come along with us and make sure we can do business.”
ELA is developing a spaceport in Arnhem Land, a significant sovereign asset and a shortcut through industrialisation that could see firms attached to one of Earth’s most ancient civilisations working with frontier science.
ELA has already generated 13 local jobs with 10 going to Aboriginal people. The company was meant to send its first NASA rocket skywards this dry season, which would have been the agency’s first commercial spaceport launch.
“This is a really big deal,” Ms Scott said. “The rest of the world has looked at this opportunity and marvelled and been exceptionally impressed that Australia has been able to secure this world-first.”
ELA is still awaiting approvals to operate its facility and for long-planned takeoffs. Had the coronavirus pandemic not intervened, delaying NASA, the regulatory hold-ups would have precluded ELA meeting contractual obligations, something Scott describes as a “significant risk to national pride and positioning in this fast-growing market”.
South Australian Premier Steven Marshall last week announced that Southern Launch would send Australia’s first commercial space-capable rocket to the edge of the atmosphere on 15 September. The craft, which resembles a hyperdrive-equipped Hills Hoist pole, will carry a whiteboard marker-sized payload designed by DEWC Technologies, a military firm working on a constellation of satellites to spot enemies before they breach the horizon.
Southern Launch boss Lloyd Damp says his firm began the approvals process for its “very small and low-risk operation” — approvals he thinks might take a fortnight in the US — last September. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority took a couple of months to give the green light to approach the 100km atmospheric boundary. (good grief that was quick) But Southern Launch and DEWC want to go 1km beyond that to make the flight historic and test the DEWC payload’s electronic-warfare capabilities.
The difference between the two flight paths equates to a change in the nose-angle at launch. It’s the same rocket. Same fuel. Same payload. But Southern Launch and DEWC have no idea when the ASA may let them blast that extra kilometre.
DEWC’s Ian Spencer sees New Zealand pulling ahead with its successful firm Rocket Lab. He ¬believes reaching space commercially from Australia is a crucial step towards building confidence in the industry Down Under.
“Everyone is excited about it, everyone wants to be part of this, and it’s the right time in history to be doing it,” he said.
“But just to get to this last hurdle and the regulator’s sort of dragging the chain a little bit — I don’t want to bag them and put them off-side, and we’ll never get the thing launched, but it certainly is a frustration.”

Well mate, there’s a few that were in the aviation business that could tell you a  tale or two…….how long is a piece of string?
For goodness sake don’t bag them, they have a thing about that, usually followed by a hostile audit that shuts your whole enterprise down. Hell hath no fury like a CAsA scorned.

Space Industry Association deputy chair Melissa de Zwart says the launch approval delays are “fairly serious”, adding that regulatory environment is the “key determinant” of investment flows in a globally competitive market. She also says Australians take for granted many everyday gadgets and services that secretly rely on space to operate.
“People in lockdown have been watching Netflix, internet shopping home-schooling, using Zoom — what would we do without all of those things?” she asks.
Professor de Zwart sees Australia as poised as in the ‘50s and ‘60s, reliant on government enthusiasm to decide if its industry can grow into a leading role or will be confined to a bit part.
An ASA spokeswoman says the Agency will “continue to work closely with companies such as Southern Launch and Equatorial Launch Australia regarding their obligations … (and) with the industry on providing a regulatory environment that ensures safe and responsible space activities, as well as encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship.”
Adam Gilmour is a former banker who now runs Gilmour Space Technologies, a Queensland-based rocketry firm with ambitions to triple its 55 employees and reap revenues “north of $100m” in a few years.
“When Australia starts launching stuff into space, that will inspire the country to think a bit bigger,” he said.

Some comments on the article:

Thomas
5 HOURS AGO
I really don’t think Australia can claim to have been at the forefront of space exploration in the 1950s and 1960s unless I missed a few rocket launches from Canberra or the Australian moon landing mission from Parramatta. We know that Parkes handled some of the comms for NASA but seriously that’s not us at the forefront, let’s get some perspective.
Likethumb_up2

Steve
5 HOURS AGO
The Coalition is all talk and no action on just about everything.  The only thing they do is hold Royal Commissions (or Senate Reviews), issue a report then put it on the shelf to gather dust until they need to do the same Royal Commission again.

Anthony
6 HOURS AGO
I get physically nauseous and angry at the damage being done to our future by bureaucrats.  Perhaps it is worse elsewhere, I wouldn’t know.  But I have experienced it myself here and my heart bleeds for entrepreneurs and business people having their and the countries dreams and aspirations frustrated by pen pushing taxpayer funded bureaucrats.  And to add insult to injury, most of them are unsuited by education, training or experience to be screwing the endeavours of those putting their own money and lives on the line.

BarryF
7 HOURS AGO
We control out to the continental shelf at sea and have an exclusive economic zone to 200 kms in that direction. How far does or can Australia regulate going up? Perhaps as far as bureaucratic hot air can rise? If you know the answer to that question maybe you also know how far down we control. As far as China?

Garry
7 HOURS AGO
CASA continues be an impediment to all things aviation.
A complete clean out is urgently required .we need “ can do “ not “can not “attitudes. What can we do to help instead of “ I’m covering my arse”.. what’s the chance of that?? Probably zero
Likethumb_up8
Greg
7 HOURS AGO
This is exactly reminiscent of an episode of Utopia.

Johnnw
7 HOURS AGO
The Australian way...create a bureaucracy, then think of something it can regulate.

Peter
15 HOURS AGO
As you try to negotiate the necessaries, sitting around the table of bureaucrats and pseudo-experts,  there is only one thought will run though your mind.  Almost every one of these people will be sitting there thinking:  "how can I use each of these issues to enhance my image in the eyes of my boss?" 

Soylent Majority
17 HOURS AGO
(Edited)
There is nothing good old-fashioned, bloody-minded Australian bureaucracy can't screw up. The struggle of Southern Launch and DEWC to be allowed to fly that one extra vertical kilometre is perfectly symptomatic of the mind-set. You can just picture the space bureaucrats: having set an arbitrary boundary in the sky, they'd be holding meetings, writing proposals, rushing hither and thither with worried looks about the potentially catastrophic effects of flying that one extra K on . . . well, who knows? Oh, it might upset the delicate habitat of Canberra's Skywhale, causing a cascading extinction event in the endangered Skywhale population, thus increasing the number of polar bears spontaneously bursting into flames . . . or something.

Earlier today I watched a live stream of the fourteenth Electron rocket launch from New Zealand. By the time our government has got done designing the gender-neutral toilet signage for Australia's first space station (built in Lichtenstein, estimated delivery time the year 2983 at a cost of 38 squintillion dollars) and negotiated the contract for delivering the welcome to country ceremonies with indigenous Martian tribes and developed a covid-safe crew transfer vehicle, the Kiwis will be settling the moons of Neptune.

The KIWIS for goodness sakes!

Damien
16 HOURS AGO
I'm a Kiwi who worked in Canberra for the public service (Commonwealth not ACT) for just over five years and the story (and Soylent Majority's brilliant take on it - hilarious!) is all too familiar. Thankfully in 2016 the National govt under John Key set up a small hands-off NZ Space Agency with a pro-business leaning (it sits as a branch within the bigger Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment rather than with one of the science agencies). In fact it was basically a 'shell company'-like entity created to give NASA a Kiwi opposite to sign the giant pile of American paperwork of cooperation agreements, permissions, etc, born of decades of interaction with bureaucratic space behemoths like the ESA. Since then its approach has been 'Let her rip!' - John Key and, to her credit, Jacinda Adern, have both recognised that in dealing with such a innovative hi-tech sector govt bureaucrats will never be able to keep up with, much less set rigid parameters for, the leading edge companies in the field like Rocket Lab. 

Soylent Majority
6 HOURS AGO
Good on you, Damien. I wasn't having a go at NZ, you understand. I'm highly impressed that the government across the ditch has allowed a private company to set up and operate it's own space facility and that the locals are cool with it.

It's just impossible to imagine happening here. Australia routinely takes every natural advantage and opportunity and buries it in nonsense.

And as a fellow former Canberra APS escapee, well done on getting out!

Penelope
7 HOURS AGO
Agree. Australia has a history of very slow and unreasonable bureaucracy to the country’s detriment: also, if it is good give it away or sell early (CSIRO is largely the exception). It’s time to grasp opportunities, especially in a timely manner, and get on with it.