South Australia’s first state-owned and manufactured research satellite has launched into low-Earth orbit, hitching a ride on a SpaceX smallsat rideshare program mission over the weekend.
The launch on a Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday morning (AEDT) rounds off three years of work by the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre, Inovor Technologies and Myriota on the CubeSat, dubbed Kanyini.
The satellite, which is equipped with onboard thermal energy and AI-based analytics, will deliver data to government and research institutions, including for the early detection of bushfires.
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It will also monitor surface temperatures in the state, with the data to be used by the SA Department of Environment and Water to update heat maps used for infrastructure planning.
Kanyini takes its names from a word in the language of the Pitjantjatjara First Nations people that describes the principle of responsibility and unconditional love for all of creation.
SA Defence and Space Industries minister Stephen Mullighan described the launch as a “significant milestone and pivotal step forward” for the state’s budding space sector.
“We are excited for Kanyini to unlock more opportunities for research and development of innovative, sovereign Australian space technologies,” he said in a statement.
Inovor chief executive Matt Tetlow and Myriota co-founder David Haley said the achievement was testament to the collaborative effort of the whole mission team.
SmartSat CRC chief executive Andy Koronios said that with the satellite now in orbit, the focus of the $6.5 million mission has shifted to the valuable data the satellite will contribute.
“The coming months will be crucial as the team works to fully operationalise Kanyini and begin reaping the benefits of its data-gathering capabilities,” he said.
The next milestone of the $6.5 million mission is establishing stable communications through an operations centre operated by Inovor Technologies at Lot Fourteen in Adelaide.
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