Shoal presents at 13th IAASS Conference in Prague

16 Oct 2024

Shaun Wilson, CEO of Shoal Group, and Justin Hill, Director of Flight Safety at the Australian Space Agency, presented a joint paper at the 13^th International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS) Conference on the 9^th of October 2024 in Prague, Czech Republic. With the conference theme being ‘Building a safe, secure and sustainable space’, the paper focuses on the safety aspects of Australia’s modernised space regulatory framework.

‘Implementation of modernised Australian space activities regulatory framework: Ensuring risk-based safety assessments, adaptable for a burgeoning space launch environment,’ is a joint Shoal Group paper, co-authored with representatives of the Australian Space Agency and Asia Pacific Aerospace Consultants (APAC). It discusses the challenges and opportunities of establishing new space launch and returns regulations in Australia.

Given that Australia is an emerging market for space launches and returns, Australian space regulation has been established as a flexible framework, allowing for varying maturities and complexities of space launch and returns activities. A benefit of the Australian legislation is that it caters to a wide variety of space activities, risk profiles and complexities. The legislation also permits recognition of work done by other international regulatory bodies, either by enabling an expedited review process focused on the verification of previously completed work against unique Australian regulatory requirements, or in some cases, through a formal Technical Registration Instrument. But one of the challenges to this flexible approach is that it can be difficult for new applicants to understand where to begin and what constitutes a sufficiently complete application.

The paper discusses these challenges, reviews the changes made since initial establishment of the framework and discusses lessons learned from the initial applications. It also looks at the future development of additional guidance and tools that will further enhance usability and speed of regulator processes for space activities for Australia.

Congratulations to the paper’s co-authors, Shena Howell, Shaun Wilson, Jeremy Margrie, John Wharington and Sam Randell, from Shoal, Justin Hill and Adam Clash, from the Australian Space Agency, and Bill Barrett, from Asia Pacific Aerospace Consultants.

The conference is run by the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS), with the paper presented in the Regulations and Standards section of the conference.

View the presentation: Australian Space Regulatory Framework- 13th IAASS – Presentation

Read the paper: Australian Space Regulatory Framework – 13th IAASS Conference – Paper

(Published with permission of the IAASS).

About Shoal

Shoal is complex systems design company. We use Systems Engineering combined with Modelling, Simulation and Analysis to help our clients define, analyse, decide, optimise, and deliver technology-intensive projects in complex environments across Defence, Space, Transport and Infrastructure.

More: shoalgroup.com

About Australian Space Agency

The Australian Space Agency is a division of the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science and Resources. The role of the Agency is to enhance Australia’s wellbeing and prosperity through the responsible use of space.

More: space.gov.au

About APAC

Asia Pacific Aerospace Consultants (APAC) is a Sydney based consulting firm staffed by space industry professionals that has been providing services to the space and telecommunications industries both domestically and internationally for over 20 years. We have competencies across all major space sectors and work regularly with Shoal and the Australian Space Agency on launch activities and space flight safety issues and with the US and Australian Governments on space domain awareness and space traffic management.

More: apac.com.au

About IAASS

The IAASS is a non-profit organisation dedicated to furthering international cooperation and scientific advancement in space systems safety, security and sustainability.

More: IAASS – International Association for the advancement of space safety