Hot off the press!, page-605

From The Australian this afternoon:

A planned $240m space radar project will guard against threats to commercial and military satellites, giving Australia, its allies and commercial operators the ability to track hundreds of thousands of orbiting objects.The system, to include the world’s first commercial “deep space” radar, will offer unparalleled space awareness, allowing detection of ”every object, in every orbit, in Australia’s orbital area of interest”. This includes offensive satellites operated by adversaries, such as China, which could be used to disrupt Western space assets.

LeoLabs, the key proponent of the Aussie Space Radar Project, said building space surveillance systems was “as important as nuclear-powered submarines” to Australia’s security.“The reality is that our whole economy is space enabled. Our military is space enabled. Our security systems all rely on space,” LeoLabs president Terry van Haren said.“To lose space services is the biggest initial risk in any conflict.”

LeoLabs tracks about 18,000 space objects in low-earth orbit, including about 3000 satellites, using a New Zealand-based space radar. Its biggest client is the US Space Force.

It has applied for $80m in federal support through the government’s Modern Manufacturing Initiative, to help manufacture and install three new radars in Australia’s north.

The system will allow it to measure and track more than 250,000 space objects in low-earth orbit, and maintain “neighbourhood watch” in the Indo-Pacific through its deep-space monitoring of objects in geostationary orbit.

Australia is emerging as a global space industry leader, partnering with NASA on its Artemis mission to return humans to the moon by 2024 and establish a lasting presence there.



Which raises the question, when will EOS actually announce it has gained some funding for space.