Australia’s space treaty with the United States will prevent the federal government from using revenue collected from US launches to fund the development of local rocket technology, leading to warnings it has ceded sovereignty on industry development in the space sector.
The Technology Safeguards Agreement (TSA), made public for the first time on Tuesday, also requires that Australia enters into agreements with other governments before non-US rockets can be launched from local spaceports.
Signed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden in October, the TSA provides the legal and technical framework for US companies, government agencies and universities to conduct launches from Australia spaceports.
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I don’t agree entirely with this take, with all due respect. Australia is still free to independently develop whatever rockets we want – in accordance with laws and treaties to which we are party. All the TSA says is that Australia can’t use technology accessed/learned from launching U.S. rockets to build our own rockets. Otherwise both Australia and the U.S. would be violating the MTCR.
I think our real problem is the lack of investment from our own government in space. That’s the number one issue we face.
Is there any Aus federal foresight to protect longer term future Aus business interests in space-tech?