South Australian nanosatellite manufacturing company Inovor Technologies is taking its business plans to new heights after being granted almost half a million dollars by the State Government and signing on with the largest private space company in Italy.
Chief executive Matthew Telow said the company would use the $450,000 to sell its nanosatellites to interested companies.
The letter of intent signed with Italian company, SITAEL, will also provide greater scope to manufacture micro and mini satellites and ground station applications that are bigger than Inovor's current products.
"It's a bit of funding to help us to get our current prototype satellites into production level space crafts," Dr Telow said.
"This is great, super exciting, we were holding the brakes on it. We were plodding along slowly, but this injection of cash will ramp up our capabilities."
He said Australian companies were buying satellite fleets from the United States, but their locally made product would keep investment in South Australia.
"So many people study aerospace engineering and have to go overseas for a job," Dr Telow said.
"This is now an opportunity the guys are going to come out of uni or back from overseas and build satellite technology in South Australia."
SA on its way to 'tap into international space industry'
Minister for Space Industry Kyam Maher said Inovor's progress in the five years since it began indicated other South Australian companies were on their way to getting a slice of the $400 billion international space industry.
"Some of the potential benefits include being able measure remote stock, measuring things in vineyards ... measuring climate change," Mr Maher said.
Inovor Technologies creates miniature satellites or "CubeSats" which help carry communication technologies into space and cost up to $1 million.
Although they have experienced communication issues with one of their launched CubeSats, Dr Telow said the extra money would mean they could create reliable product because they would make all the parts themselves.
"We want to have control over the entire system so we have provide an assured platform that we know the ins and outs of," he said.
Mr Maher agreed the company needed the chance to learn from the mistakes.
"They've got runs on the team ... there's every reason to be optimistic about Inovor's prospects," he said.
In the next two months Inovor will finalise its business structure with SITAEL, but it could give Inovor small start-up offices the opportunity to expand.
