Dr Katherine Bennell-Pegg

is moving from being able to just demonstrate capability to being able to deliver operational capability.

So we're poised to scale, you know, right as the global space sector is shifting geopolitically, it's shifting programmatically, it's shifting industrially to be more commercial.

And that is a really rare alignment and it's really powerful for us in terms of

we've got the capability if we can bridge that gap to serving these international markets.

But most space markets are quite closed and that's the role of government and the role of the space agency to unlock access.

For example, we've recently signed an agreement called the TSA or Technology Safeguards Agreement with the US, which allows US rocket companies to launch from Australia.

And that business that could bring to Australia is thought to be

over $1 billion over the next decade because we're a fantastic place to launch from.

Why is that?

Where we are in the world, we've got the ability to launch near the equator, which lets you launch further afield, you know, to, um,

what's called geostationary orbit, which is a really important one for communications or further out to the moon.

We can also launch orbits that go around the poles, which are really good for looking at the Earth because the whole Earth rotates underneath you.

We are the only place in the world that has commercial capsules returning to commercial spaceports.

So it's Australian businesses running the spaceports that are getting the economic benefit.

And what those capsules contain are pharmaceuticals.

So in space, because everything is really stable because it floats, you can make new medicines that you can't make on Earth.

And they're returning those to Australia.

And we've only just started that in the last few years.

And there's been a deal just signed for 20 more until 2028.

So Australia is really critical to the global space economy.