Australian-made satellites will soon be launched on a SpaceX rocket in a move designed to close gaps in the country’s air traffic management.

The project, created by Canberra-based Skykraft and backed by Airservices Australia, will see a constellation of 200 satellites launched over the next two years to improve flight safety and communication.

Congratulations to the team for getting this far.

Building a cubesat and putting an ADS-B terminal on it is not so difficult these days, the hard part will be in raising the funds for a 200-satellite constellation, manufacturing facility, operations and marketing. That will need around $200m capital injection before they ever make any money from services - and the same again to keep replacing their satellites.

 

Spire (US/UK) are already doing this and other "constellation" companies from Australia, such as Fleet and Myriota, are also well on the way, but not all will succeed - a previous venture in Australia called sky and Space Global is now pretty much at a standstill after launching only 3 satellites.