The SIAA’s Lisa Vitaris highlights Australia’s growing space industry and the many untapped opportunities it presents for manufacturers. SIAA Comment Lisa Vitaris, Director, IAC 2025 Sydney, Space Industry Association of Australia
There is a world of potential awaiting Australian manufacturing, but most businesses are not even aware of it.
The opportunity is not one that many have seized to date and hence remains the domain of a few, but rapidly growing, manufacturers. This opportunity is 100 kilometres overhead and beyond – in space. For decades, space was the domain of scientists, astronauts, and government agencies. But a quiet revolution is taking place up above – one that could reshape the global manufacturing industry.
If your organisation has not yet considered what it might mean to manufacture for space – or even in space – it is time to look up. The next industrial revolution could very well happen beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
The lack of awareness does not come as a surprise given many Australians are not aware we have a space industry [43 per cent of us] or even a space agency [29 per cent of us], according to SIAA Research Insights: Foundational Research by Freshwater Strategy in August 2023.
And yet, with more than 630 businesses in the Australian space industry, and our Australian Space Agency established in 2018, the sector is rapidly growing with many organisations increasing their capability in leaps and bounds.
Gilmour Space manufactures Australian-made launch vehicles and satellite buses in its 10,000 square metre manufacturing facility on the Gold Coast. It has built up a global space supply chain including more than 300 local companies ranging from material and component suppliers to other high-tech engineering companies.
“As the first orbital rocket manufacturer in Australia, we’ve had to co-develop and establish new space technologies and manufacturing methods with our partners here. While mostly from adjacent industries, the depth of talent in Australia has been instrumental in making this possible,” said Gilmour Space spokesperson, Michelle Gilmour.
“With Gilmour set to launch the first Australian-made rocket imminently, this is set to spark further growth and ignite an even broader space supply chain.”
From rockets to lubricants, another local company, FUCHS Lubricants Australasia, distinguishes itself in the lubricants sector by producing 96 per cent of its products locally. FUCHS provides low outgassing lubricants for satellite reaction wheels, coolants for rocket body and componentry fabrication, and specialised oils and greases for both launch and on-orbit operations to Australian and New Zealand businesses.
The goal of getting to the Moon provides even further opportunities. The ELO2 Consortium, co-led by EPE Oceania and Lunar Outpost Oceania, was recently selected by the Australian Space Agency to design, build, test, and remotely operate Australia’s first lunar rover, lovingly named Roo-ver by the Australian public. This is a mission of national significance and part of the Australian Space Agency’s Moon to Mars Trailblazer initiative.
While the focus is on developing a rover that will successfully operate hundreds of thousands of kilometres away on the Moon’s south pole, ELO2 will also seek to uncover new opportunities. These opportunities have the potential to grow the Australian space industry through its partnerships and introduce technologies developed in the course of the Roo-ver build into global space supply chains. They will also utilise technologies from the Mission to drive productivity and competitiveness in Australia’s traditional space-enabled industries including mining, agriculture, tourism, and defence.
“We’re still in the early stages of looking at the opportunities that will flow from Roo-ver, but it’s clear that, undertaken successfully, this will be a gamechanger for Australian manufacturing,” said director of ELO2, Ben Sorensen.
Even ‘across the ditch’ in New Zealand, The Merino Software Company is involved in textiles development for space. Specialising in purpose-bred Merino fibre and high-performance wool textiles, they recognised a strong alignment between their capabilities and the requirements of the aerospace and space sectors, particularly in the United States.
It has focused on developing wool-based materials with unique properties such as neutron shielding, flame resistance, moisture regulation, and thermal stability, which make their textiles suitable for applications including apparel/textiles, interiors, protective covers, and wearable systems. Collaboration agreements are now in place with several prominent players who see the value of natural fibre technologies in extreme environments.
There are other trailblazer manufacturers who have achieved similar success, but we are clearly still leaving many opportunities on the table.
More exciting still, is that the more we build things for space, the more we can build things in space. This provides a unique opportunity to assist in the development of next generation materials only possible within a micro-gravity environment. Micro-gravity environments can enable production of materials with exceptional precision and quality including growth of crystals with fewer defects for semiconductors, protein crystallisation in pharmaceuticals, and many others.
These initiatives prove that in-space manufacturing is not just science fiction – it is an emerging industrial sector. And with the cost to launch one kilogram of payload mass to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) rapidly decreasing over time, this is becoming more financially viable.
With infinite opportunities to expand into Australia’s space ecosystem and beyond, it could now be time to explore the possibilities. But this does not have to prove as big a challenge as putting a rover on the moon.
Businesses interested can attend the world’s largest space event, the International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2025) coming to ICC Sydney in Darling Harbour from 29 September to 3 October 2025.
For the first time ever at an IAC, space-enabled industries will be featured including a particular focus on manufacturing. With up to 10,000 people from 80-100 countries and our Australian space industry on show, launching into space has never been more within our reach and there is long-term potential for those willing to take the first step.
Space is truly no longer just for astronauts. It is for engineers, machinists, designers, and manufacturers.