Hosting the Australian Space Summit (for the third time!)

The Australian Space Summit 2025 (aka #AusSpace25 sees the best and brightest of the nation and beyond going to Sydney for an intense series of talks, panels, and networking in which we explore and shape Australia's space industry. An incredible event that I will hosted for the third year running, a true honour that I thank Space Connect for bravely/brilliantly (you pick) allowing me to have once more..!

I was particularly excited by the range of emerging and established companies and agencies (and their key decision-makers!) from around the world who came to the ICC in Sydney over two days (Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th of May). It’s fair to say this has been a tumultuous year in which our nation has experienced a range of changes, challenges, but also successes. One thing that hasn't changed, however, is the continued growth of the space industry globally, as well as that growth in importance in the Civil and Defence sectors alike.

As the photos below show, all images courtesy of Captivate Events by “Camera Creations”, there was a great range of activities including three trained Australian astronauts chatting to a hundred school kids, the lunar rover, and a range of experts from NASA and more.

Some further snaps from the days from myself below really showcase just what an incredible AusSpace Summit it was - with that demo lunar rover by ELO2 (the Swinburne is assisting in building!) to some of Swinburne University of Technology’s Space Technology and Industry Team team (Rebecca Allen, Sara Webb, Thomas Graham) representing under some cool gold-ish MLI arches, to getting a selfie backstage with Aussie astronaut and polar explorer Eric Philips, to some incredible panel discussions (apologies to the panelists I forgot to take photos with you after but here’s one following a fascinating dual-use technologies discussion with the former NASA Chief Technologist A.C. Charania, Nick Miller Senior Director of Optus, Dr. Joni Sytsma CTO of iLAunch, and Prof Melissa de Zwart guru of space law at Uni Adelaide). And an example snap where after introducing the luminaries I get to watch! (In this case former PM Scott Morrison, the head of USAF space command IndoPac Gen “Chachi” Mastalir and Alan Clements AM CSC the CEO of L3Harris).

And of course SpaceX timed their launch of Starship with the start of day two for an incredible energiser for the delegates.

It was a blast… dare I say… it was out of this world! And of course an incredible honour to work alongside the professionals at Space Connect to make this as engaging and informative an event for the sector as possible. And getting to ask the experts the questions I want to have answered too is something I never take for granted at these events!