A "strong sovereign capability in space" would make Australia a stronger partner in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance with the US, the UK, Canada, and New Zealand, according to Colonel (Ret'd) Pamela Melroy, a former US Air Force test pilot and NASA Space Shuttle commander.
"Australia needs to embrace this, because you're going to have a much more muscular role in the Five Eyes as a result," Melroy told the conference "Building Australia's Strategy for Space", which was organised by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) in Canberra last week.
One example is space surveillance, which involves the detection, tracking, cataloging, and identification of objects in space. With new systems soon to come online, such as Space Fence[1], the ground-based Space Surveillance Telescope (SST)[2] in Western Australia, and commercial systems, Melroy says Australia should not simply be passing on their raw data to the US.
"Australia can and should develop a domestic capability to generate and provide processed information -- not data, information -- that supports its own defence force in real time, but is also of much greater value to our Five Eyes partners," she said.
By coincidence, the conference has been scheduled just weeks before the forthcoming launch[3] of the Australian Space Agency on July 1, so much of the conversation turned to the agency's role.
Melroy stressed the importance of close cooperation with defence. She is now director of space technology and policy at the Adelaide-based engineering and management services company Nova Systems, who would certainly stand to profit from more defence work, but there's a broader economic argument.
"It's a really urgent priority to make sure that the conversation between industry and the space agency is