From rockets to pop culture, Australia’s space age was a story of curiosity, innovation, and imagination. 🇦🇺✨ 🚀 Archival records and objects reveal Australia’s role in space exploration and how science, design, and ideas shaped the era. We preserve and share these records, so that the stories of Australians who reached for the stars remain accessible for future generations. ‘Out of this world: Australia in the space age’ was a National Archives of Australia touring exhibition that shared stor

Together with the Italian Space Agency, we recently launched SpIRIT, a landmark nanosatellite mission supported by the Australian Space Agency. Demonstrating Australia’s growing reputation in the global space sector, SpIRIT is the first Australian satellite to carry a foreign space agency’s scientific instrument as its main payload, namely the Italian Space Agency’s HERMES X-ray detector. The HERMES X-ray detector is designed to search for bursts of gamma rays, which are created when stars die o

We have lift off! 🚀 This morning, the Space Industry Responsive Intelligent Thermal nanosatellite (SpIRIT) lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California USA, aboard a SpaceX rocket and has entered a polar orbit 513km above Earth 🛰️ SpIRIT is the first Australian satellite to carry a foreign space agency’s scientific instrument as its main payload. It was developed by a consortium led by our Melbourne Space Lab and the Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana), comprising Ino