Analysis and Commentary


Celebrating Australian sovereign capability – 2023 is the year for liftoff

Analysis and Commentary




To begin the second week of @AuManufacturing’s Celebrating Australian sovereign capability series, Brent Balinski speaks to Adam Gilmour from Gilmour Space Technologies about the company’s planned orbital launch.

If things go to plan, this year Gilmour Space Technologies will become the first Australian company to build a rocket and put it into orbit.

The company, founded by brothers Adam and James Gilmour in 2012 and backed mainly by venture capital firms, has been working on rockets since 2015. Before the startup, Adam Gilmour worked in banking for two decades.

Launch success – first for test and demonstration, then a second low earth orbit flight with commercial ride-sharing journey – would fill a major gap in Australian industry. 

As it is with earth observation data and other space-based services, Australia has been a consumer rather than producer of launch services. An Australian rocket maker and launch provider would fill a yawning gap for local small satellite startups – which have had to look overseas to launch – as well as overseas customers. 

(Separately, Gilmour is also developing a prototype surveillance satellite for defence. The company was awarded a $15 million contract for the G-class sat in May 2022, with a launch planned for this year.)

The Eris spacecraft made by Gilmour is a 23-metre, 30-tonne, three-stage rocket, propelled by a combination of solid fuel and liquid oxidiser. It will contain a 300 kilogram payload, with the future Block 2 variant to have a carrying capacity of 1,000 kilograms.     

In the below interview with Adam Gilmour, conducted during the recent Avalon Airshow, we check in on the company’s progress, and the importance of space industry sovereignty. (Interview has been lightly edited for clarity.)

@AuManufacturing: First of all, how do you understand the term “sovereign capability”?

Adam Gilmour: There’s a range in the definitions of what sovereign is. And the most basic definition of sovereign is made in Australia, in terms of the context of sovereignty in Australia. And that’s kind of a baseline I’ve heard from the federal government as a minimum. 

My personal concept of sovereignty is based on what I see around the world. A lot of other countries feel sovereignty has a lot to do with ownership of the organisation and control of the organisation. For example, in the United States, if you’re going to launch any Department of Defense mission, you have to be from a company that is more than 50 per cent owned and controlled by US citizens. And that’s codified in the law. And so you have versions of that across the world, in all of the nations that launch rockets. Except Australia right now. 

And so the reason why I think it’s important to have domestic ownership of the company is because in a time of crisis, you don’t want to have a situation where a foreign entity that is controlling a subsidiary in Australia tells them to stop manufacturing, redirect manufacturing etcetera. And the best example I have of this recently is Australia had contracts with the big pharma companies to get vaccines that were being produced in Europe. And then the European government blockaded them from being sent to Australia during the Covid crisis. 

My experience as a banker in the financial crisis is people don’t behave properly when the proverbial hits the fan, and so if we are in a crisis situation we want to have control of the activities of the company that’s providing defensive equipment or national protection equipment. And I’ve been at Avalon in the last few days and that’s been resonating with the Defence Department as well.

The Sirius rocket engine, which completed qualification tests in November last year. Five rockets will power the first and second stages of the Eris. (Picture: supplied)

@AuManufacturing: Could you talk us through the importance of Australia developing its own primes? 

Adam Gilmour: I think this is a critical piece, because the landscape in defence, for probably longer than I’ve been alive, is Australia has relied on large multinational companies to serve as the primary contractors for any kind of defence project. And the kind of wishful thinking is that they’ll bring in as much Australian content into that product as possible. But the reality is if you’re an American company making satellites, and you’re making them for the US government, you’ve got a very large domestic supply chain in the United States. It’s probably mandated by the US government. And so if you are then tasked to sell that satellite to Australia your natural inclination is going to be to use the same supply chain. You trust them, it’s qualified etcetera. 

And so it’s almost like there’s this huge barrier to cross, without any rules and regulations, that people are going to naturally use that supply chain. 

So the same works opposite for Australian companies. We naturally have Australian suppliers, not because the government mandates it, but because it’s easier for us to communicate with them, to get supplies from them, to send them back if anything’s wrong, to not have to worry about any export controls etcetera. So when we sell a product to the Australian government, we’re naturally using the Australian supply chain. And for example, for our orbital vehicle, we have over 300 suppliers in australia. 

@AuManufacturing: For those 300 suppliers, what do you see as the importance of bringing them along as part of your work, of lifting their capability where this can be done?

Adam Gilmour: I think that’s important, because in space and in defence as well, there’s this concept of qualification through heritage. And so it’s extremely important for Australian companies that are in the defence and space supply chain to gain that heritage. Not only so they can provide quality equipment and services to Australian products within Australia, but also export them overseas. And in space particularly that has been a real hamper. There hasn’t been enough Australian kit go up and be proved in space. But the good news is when we go to space, 300 Australian suppliers will get space qualified.

@AuManufacturing: On the topic of getting to space, could we please get an update on the Bowen spaceport?

Adam Gilmour: We’re moving along very well on that. We’ve done most of the major infrastructure, we’ve got one concrete pour to go for the main launchpad. We’re in the process of manufacturing our fluids tower – that’s the big thing you see next to the rocket that loads it up before launch. And the other piece that we’re in manufacture with is the launcher erector, which is what you bring the rocket out onto on the pad and erect it up vertically. And those are the last two bits of the puzzle. And we’ve got to finish all our approval process as well. But we’re looking to have all of that done in the next three months.

@AuManufacturing: So you are still on track to launch the first Eris flight this year?

Adam Gilmour: Yes we are. We’re trying very hard to launch by August.

@AuManufacturing: Could we also get your opinion on the National Reconstruction Fund? What should it be doing, in your view, to develop aerospace, space and defence manufacturing companies?

Adam Gilmour: I think what they should be looking for are companies that have moved a little bit forwards in their technology that are at the point which you sometimes hear called the valley of death. They’ve developed some prototypes, they’re looking to commercialise, and they need some government support to carry them over to full commercialisation. And I think that should be a case of not just seven specific industries, it should be any good technology company that has good potential. And I believe that’s the way the NRF is going, and if it does go that way I’m super, super-supportive of it. I think it is generally a fantastic initiative. The government has been very consultative with industry, including myself. I just want to make sure space is included in it. Because if it isn’t it would be a real shame and a missed opportunity. 

@AuManufacturing: As space is an enabler of so many other industries

Adam Gilmour: Agreed. There’s a lady called Pam Melroy who’s the Deputy Administrator of NASA, and she has a really good quote: in the future every company is going to be a space company.

@AuManufacturing: Yep. That’s a corker. To continue with government efforts to assist promising manufacturing businesses, you’ve been involved with a few of them. What has worked and what hasn’t and why?

Adam Gilmour: I’ve had a very positive experience with the CRC-P. I think that that’s been a good program that’s been flexible, where you have the ability to move along the project, discover things, modify etcetera. I think that’s been really good. Same with the AMGC. I guess the problem I have and that everybody has with a lot of these grant programs is there’s an overburdensome amount of information required. I think it needs to be reevaluated to look at what is the minimum amount of detail you have to give on a project to get it approved.

@AuManufacturing: Sure. I guess that’s why there’s a big grant proposal industry because it’s so damn much trouble to write applications.

Adam Gilmour: Yes it is. We outsource it as well. It’s a crazy amount of work. It’s ridiculous. I often wonder: ‘is anybody really reading all of this?’ 

@AuManufacturing: I have some guesses. But we’d like to switch course a little and get your perspective on the VC community and its mood, based on the conversations you’re having.

Adam Gilmour: It’s pretty bad, actually. I think the VC community has become overly bearish or negative on deep tech. And I’ve seen this before, it goes up and down in swings. 

I think a lot of them are thinking there’s going to be a recession, I don’t think there’s going to be a big recession or a long recession. I’m optimistic risk is going to turn back on again, but I’m surprised by the negativity of the VC industry right now. I think they haven’t done a good job of differentiating capital management. There’ve been a lot of companies that have raised a lot of money and just blown it. And then there’s companies like us that have raised a decent amount of money but have been very careful with our money. And I think that’s really, really important.

@AuManufacturing: Will you be raising capital again?

Adam Gilmour: Yes we will be.

Pictures: credit Gilmour Space

Further reading

LOCAL SPACE INDUSTRY IS NOW MOVING FAST, AND THAT’S JUST AS WELL

GILMOUR SPACE ANNOUNCES PLANNED RIDESHARE LEO MISSION FOR EARLY 2024

DEFENCE, GILMOUR SPACE PARTNER ON ROCKET TECHNOLOGIES

GILMOUR-LED GROUP GETS $52 MILLION GRANT FOR SPACE TEST, MANUFACTURING AND LAUNCH FACILITIES

‘ALL ENGINES NOW QUALIFIED’ SAYS GILMOUR AHEAD OF 2023 LAUNCH

@AuManufacturing’s editorial series – Celebrating Australian sovereign capability – is brought to you with the support of Nova Systems and Titomic.



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