National Space Program

This article is about the Keating space program. For the modern space program, see Australian Space Agency.

National Space Program
Program overview
CountryAustralia
Organisation
PurposeDevelop a national space industry in Australia
StatusDefunct by 1996
Program history
CostA$106 million[1]: p. 3.16 
Duration1986–1996
First flight
Last flight
Successes1
Failures0
Partial failures1 (STS-42)
Launch site(s)
  • Cape York Space Centre
  • Woomera Space Centre

The National Space Program was a set of policies and organisations under the Hawke and Keating governments created with the goals of developing a national space industry in Australia.[2] When the Howard government came to power in 1996 the program was abolished following the advice of the Bureau of Industry Economics. The National Space Program was generally considered a failure by most media after its demise.[3][4] During its existence it was crippled by a lack of budget,[5] and multiple white elephant projects. The Federal Government disbanded the project in 1996 and had covered up most traces of it by 1998.[6][7]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference budget1996 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Nation's space-age needs well defined in report: CSIRO". Canberra Times. 25 June 1985. p. 8. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  3. ^ "Space-age ghost town finds a new life". Canberra Times. 9 January 1995. p. 4. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  4. ^ Dougherty, Kerrie (21 September 2017). "Lost in space: Australia dwindled from space leader to also-ran in 50 years". The Conversation. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  5. ^ "Australian government seeds a space agency, but will it take off?". Cosmos Magazine. 10 May 2018. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  6. ^ "Whatever happened to the Cape York Spaceport? | John Oxley Library". Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  7. ^ "High-tech saviours or white elephants?". Canberra Times. 13 April 1992. p. 9. Retrieved 19 July 2019.