There is no greater technological achievement more impressive than reaching the moon. When the United States of America made it to the Moon the country opened the doors toward a true world of human beings who no longer saw the atmosphere as the limit to to thirst and pursuit of knowledge. For that reason alone there has been a great space race around the world and now Australia is finally getting fully involved. Australia recently announced that it is planning on establishing their first ever national space agency. It is almost hard to believe that Australia never had one before but this is certainly a moment in time that their country will remember.
Australian citizens as well as Australian scientists specifically have been calling for a national space agency for decades and now it looks like Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is going to give the people what they’ve been asking for. Sen. Simon Birmingham, who is the Minister of Education for Australia’s government, was also part of the announcement proceedings. Birmingham said, “The case for establishing an Australian space agency is compelling. So I am pleased today to announce that the Australian government will be establishing a national Australian space agency.”
The goal in establishing this agency is to give the government, as well as the Australian people, a resource that they can look to for clear long term strategy regarding their nation’s role in the ever growing space race. The statement said, “A national space agency will ensure we have a strategic long term plan that supports development and application of space technologies.” The statement also focused on growing a domestic space industry within Australia’s borders.
Jan Drobik, Minister Counsellor for Defense, Technology and Science, spoke as well regarding the latest announcement. Drobik said that at the present point in time there was not a “single point of contact” for those wanting to do space explorations in Australia. Drobik went on to compare Australia to New Zealand, a country which has been working steadfast within their own agency called the rocket Lab. Drobik wasn’t wrong to compare Australia disparagingly to New Zealand. The truth is that up until this announcement Australia was just one of two countries inside of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that did not have their own agency. Iceland was the only other country without a national space agency within that arena of countries.
Dil Bole Oberoi
