CANBERRA: The CSIRO has told the Standing Committee of Industry, Innovation, Science and Resources, as part of its inquiry into developing Australia’s space industry that Australia should have its own national space capability.

CSIRO executive director of digital, national facilities and collections David Williams said that, if Australia wants access to timely data, it would only be possible if the nation owned its own satellites.  He said this would allow timely information from monitoring of data such as from flooding, drought disasters, is everything.

“Bushfire monitoring, for example: if you don’t have real-time access to data, you can’t do it from satellites. To have real-time access to data, you’ve got to have a very good relationship with another country, or you’ve got to own a satellite,” Williams said.