South Australia’s first home-grown satellite, Kanyini, has been booked to blast off on a Space X Transporter mission in 2023.
The Launch Services Agreement announced today between Kanyini’s IoT mission lead Myriota and commercial small satellite broker ISILaunch, secures Kanyini a spot to launch into low Earth orbit and places South Australia firmly at the centre of Australia’s endeavours to build space heritage and expand the nation’s satellite design and manufacturing capability.
Myriota co-founder and CTO Dr David Haley said the launch announcement was an exciting next step for the mission.
“The IoT payload will add to the Myriota Network, communicating with devices and sensors on the Earth’s surface, working together with hyperspectral imaging collected from the earth observation payload to enable a wide array of applications,” he said. “Kanyini will provide access to critical data anywhere and everywhere it’s needed to help improve and monitor water quality, crop health and bushfire resilience.”
The launch of Kanyini will be a game changer for the South Australian space sector, delivering space-derived services for applications across government and commercial use.
Mission lead, the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre has already factored the data collected by Kanyini and its HyperScout 2 imaging payload into a number of projects. This includes the OzFuel mission, which will use pioneering sovereign technology onboard Kanyini to gather real-time data to monitor potentially hazardous conditions specific to Australia’s eucalypt-dominant bushland, improving bushfire preparedness, response and resilience.
South Australian Deputy Premier and Minister for Defence and Space Industries Susan Close has welcomed the announcement and opportunities the mission will provide the local space industry.
“South Australia is leading the charge in accelerating innovation and growth in the space sector and this mission presents an important opportunity for local industry to play a key role in furthering our national endeavours to build sovereign EO capability, provide secure access to data from space and expand our satellite design and manufacturing expertise,” she said.
Now in production phase, Kanyini is a collaboration between the South Australian Government, the SmartSat CRC that is leading the mission and application prototyping, Adelaide-based commercial satellite manufacturer Inovor Technologies and global space company Myriota.
Follow Kanyini’s journey at saspacemission.com.au
