{"id":486728,"date":"2026-02-17T23:31:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T23:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/486728\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T23:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T23:31:11","slug":"space-industry-firm-terram-astra-launches-with-plans-for-outback-northern-territory-south-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/486728\/","title":{"rendered":"Space industry firm Terram Astra launches with plans for outback Northern Territory, South Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new space industry company has its sights set on the Australian outback, with bold ambitions of creating a high-tech communications hub on the edge of Alice Springs.<\/p>\n

Terram Astra will today be launched in Canberra, where the new company will announce its hopes of building a “sovereign space and defence infrastructure platform” in the Northern Territory.<\/p>\n

The company plans to harness the clear Central Australian skies to create a fibre-optic-speed satellite communication network, as an alternative to subsea cable communications.<\/p>\n

\"Stars<\/p>\n

The clear night sky above Central Australia is valuable to Terram Astra. (Supplied: Terram Astra)<\/p>\n

Chief executive Sean Thomas said Terram Astra was in discussions with the NT government and had also reached out to outback US-Australian base Pine Gap<\/a> about the defence capabilities their company was offering.<\/p>\n

“God forbid we’re ever in a situation where there is heightened conflict in the world, and communication cables are literally cut, or become inoperable,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The ability of Australia and her allies to deter and defend, if necessary, becomes exacerbated in such a scenario.<\/p>\n

“So having a ground-based, inland redundancy \u2026 becomes a real benefit, and frankly, becomes a real necessity to ensure safety of everybody.”<\/p>\n

\"Communications<\/p>\n

Terram Astra has reached out to Pine Gap about the company’s plans. (Supplied: Kristian Laemmle-Ruff)<\/p>\n

The firm said it was also speaking with the South Australian government about the prospect of setting up a similar hub there.<\/p>\n

Terram Astra hopes to raise $US10 million ($14.1 million) in seed funding to get the project underway.<\/p>\n

The company was founded by Scott Wallis, who also started space firm Equatorial Launch Australia (ELA), which facilitated three NASA rocket launches from Arnhem Land in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NT space base that launched NASA rockets to cease operations<\/a><\/p>\n

The Arnhem Space Centre will cease operations effective immediately, the company behind it says.<\/p>\n

Mr Thomas also has a background in the NT, where he helped develop plans for a major US fuel tank depot on Darwin Harbour, prior to the project becoming trouble-plagued<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Desire to be ‘good neighbour’ to Pine Gap<\/p>\n

The company’s representatives said they were pursuing a piece of Crown land on an industrial area, Brewer Estate, south of Alice Springs, where they hoped to be operational by late 2026.<\/p>\n

They said they then wanted to expand “high-level technologies” to different locations after initial operations were up and running.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sean Thomas says the company wants to be a good corporate citizen to the communities it operates in. (Supplied: Terram Astra)<\/p>\n

“We’re building a platform, starting with Alice Springs, that is going to persist for decades, not for news cycles,” Mr Thomas said.<\/p>\n

“It’s really imperative for us to be good corporate citizens in the communities that we operate in, starting outside of Alice Springs.”<\/p>\n

He said the company also hoped to be a “good neighbour” to Pine Gap.<\/p>\n

Spies in the outback<\/a><\/p>\n

In the 1960s Alice Springs saw an economic lifeline when America promised to build a space base on the edge of town.\u00a0But once its bizarre, oversized golf ball-like structures were built, mysterious things started happening.<\/p>\n

“We have initiated outreach for the purposes of collaboration and discussion with Pine Gap,” Mr Thomas said.<\/p>\n

“I think that Terram Astra would present some compelling capabilities that would be beneficial to the Australian government in a number of regards.”<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the NT’s Country Liberal Party government confirmed Terram Astra had briefed the administration on its plans.<\/p>\n

“The Territory is open for business and welcomes private investment that supports new industries and economic growth,” they said.<\/p>\n

Terram Astra founder Mr Wallis parted ways with ELA in acrimonious circumstances prior to the company’s 2022 sub-orbital NASA rocket launches from Arnhem Land.<\/p>\n

In December 2024, ELA pulled the pin on its NT operations<\/a>, citing an impasse with the Northern Land Council over its long-term land tenure.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Rockets were launched from the NT in 2022 as part of an ELA project in Arnhem Land. (Supplied: ELA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new space industry company has its sights set on the Australian outback, with bold ambitions of creating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[246219,64,63,246223,246228,246227,246221,246225,246224,246226,194269,246220,31794,1098,48862,22924,21938,44429,128,20628,285,4064,246218,246222,55172],"class_list":{"0":"post-486728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-alice-springs-take-off","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-border-sovereignty","12":"tag-brewer-estate","13":"tag-communication-network","14":"tag-communications-project","15":"tag-ela","16":"tag-equatorial-launch-australia","17":"tag-fibre-optics","18":"tag-global-conflict","19":"tag-laser-technology","20":"tag-lasers","21":"tag-nt","22":"tag-pine-gap","23":"tag-rocket","24":"tag-rockets","25":"tag-satellite-network","26":"tag-science","27":"tag-scientists","28":"tag-space","29":"tag-space-industry","30":"tag-space-project","31":"tag-terram-astra","32":"tag-uluru"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}