I'm afraid I don't see why this should be rubbing salt into anything. Good on the Kiwis for having the initiative to establish their own industry and to get into the launch business. More power to their slide rules. I have no doubt they would be equally pleased to see Australia taking a positive and enlarged role in the field.
Peter
Yeah. Wish there wasn't so much political hogwash between the two nations. We could be a lot more complementary if the stirrers didn't keep bringing up the sludge. There are differences and there are similarities that could make both of us a bit stronger globally.
Frustrating really ...
Is this actually really happening? is our magnificent country really joining the space community with ARSE??? SERA could work too, way better than ARSE omg i cant believe it haha
OK time to form a company, say IceInSpace Inc , start writing up a request for funding and get in the queue for a slice of the pie.
Only hard part is to find some half credible way to justify lobbing some piece of junk into orbit and establish a ground station to monitor it, plus a bunch of pooh-bahs with strings of credentials as long as your arm to confirm what a great idea this is. Throw in a lobbyist and start rumour of some juicy donations to liberal party campaign funds in marginal seats in SA, for good measure.
There is no way any of this is going to fly with the cognitive level of our politicians concerned with short term political returns. Look at the funding cuts to DSTO... oops, sorry, now downsized to the DST 'Group'...
And 'ARSE' - tell me this site is a parody, please...
And even if Australia developed a space agency, I doubt we will be sending kangaroos to Mars. More likely, it will just be launching a few communication satellites (boring)
My blood continues to boil in reaction to the unprecedented waste of the Gillard/Rudd balls-up. They had in their hot little hands 80billion that they managed to make it vanish without a trac.
I don't care what your political persuasion I dont believe we either have a sufficiently competent bureaucracy, or sufficiently competent Pollies to entrust them with the $$$ that a first-class Space Agency would cost. On the other hand, I believe that we directed research could and would produce some tremendously worthwhile outcomes.
We need to look at how research is being funded in Aust. Lifting and raising the priority of research.
Famously, the South Australian shipyards have been described as being unable to build a canoe, yet alone a Sub, I believe there is some truth in that tongue in cheek statement. Though at the same time our track record with basic research is excellent, indeed world class.
When Aust turned its hand to Radio Astronomy we did some world-leading work. When ANSTO was receiving respectable funding we pushed the envelope there also. I believe the key with Science in Aust is... keep it small and keep it focused.... and FUND the thing! If we can make 80 billion disappear without a trace then surely we can find a couple of billion for something worthwhile.
Nice to see the government doing something constructive and planning for the future. Our own space agency would be inspirational to young Australians and might offer some exciting employment opportunities to Uni graduates.
The Liberal Party would be doing a lot better if the Abbott faction wasn't undermining Turnbull at every turn. I tried searching for Abbott's position on space policy but nothing came up; it does seem that all sides of politics regard Abbott as a wrecker. I'm curious to see if he opposes an Australian space agency simply to weaken Turnbull.
I've never understood this. There are few/no actual policy changes from the transition of Abbott to Turnbull.
It could actually be a good thing to have our own official space agency.
, start writing up a request for funding and get in the queue for a slice of the pie. 
