Space Law in South Australia: Why It Is Now a Commercial Law Question

Five years ago, most business owners in Adelaide would have called space law niche. Something for treaty lawyers and rocket scientists. That view is getting harder to hold.

South Australia now has more than 100 space companies, the largest group in the country. The Australian Space Agency is based at Lot Fourteen. In August 2026, Southern Launch sent a rocket up from Koonibba on the Far West Coast carrying a solid rocket motor built by Defence Science and Technology Group and Thales. Fleet Space, Inovor, Myriota and QuantX Labs are building satellites, sensors and data services here, in our own suburbs.

Space is no longer only a science story. It is a supply chain, a jobs market and a deal flow. That makes it a commercial law story too.

The licence is part of the asset

Under the Space (Launches and Returns) Act 2018 (Cth), launching from Australia, operating a launch facility, launching an Australian payload overseas and returning a space object to Earth all need approval. Those approvals come with conditions. They include insurance or financial requirements, technical and safety obligations, and rules about who controls the business.

For a company in this sector, the licence often holds much of the value. A buyer who does not know how the licence works, or whether a change in ownership needs approval, may be paying for something that does not transfer in the way they expect. A seller who has not kept up with licence conditions may find that problem coming out in due diligence, just when they least want it to.

Defence work changes the rules of the contract

A lot of South Australian space work sits next to Defence, or inside it. That brings a different set of obligations. Defence contracts usually deal with intellectual property, security clearances, Defence Industry Security Program membership, and flow down clauses that reach well into the supply chain.

Then there is export control. Since the Defence Trade Controls Amendment Act 2024 (Cth) took effect, sharing controlled technology with a foreign person can be an offence, even when that person is in Australia. The same reforms made trade easier with the United States and the United Kingdom under AUKUS. For a small Adelaide engineering firm with an overseas hire, a visiting partner or a cloud server in another country, that is not a minor detail. It goes to how the business operates every day.

Mergers and acquisitions need a different lens

Capital is coming into the sector. Gilmour Space raised USD 145 million in January 2026, and Southern Launch closed a Series A round with support from the National Reconstruction Fund. As more money comes in, more businesses will be bought, sold, merged and restructured.

Space deals raise questions that ordinary deals may not. Foreign investors buying into a business that supplies Defence may trigger the national security rules under the foreign investment regime, which can require approval regardless of the deal size. Controlled technology may affect who can see the data room. Licences and Defence contracts may have change of control clauses. Warranties and indemnities need to deal with regulatory risk that sits outside a normal sale agreement.

The deal that goes smoothly is usually the one where these issues were found early, priced in, and dealt with in the documents.

Local business is part of the story

Space brings more than the companies building rockets. It brings landlords, builders, logistics providers, software developers, caterers on the West Coast and regional communities. Launch sites raise questions of land access, environmental approval, native title and community agreements. The Koonibba partnership with the Koonibba Community Aboriginal Corporation shows what careful, respectful arrangements can achieve.

Jurisdiction matters too. The launch regime is mainly federal, but planning, environment, land and employment matters are often handled at state level. A project in South Australia will not follow the same path as one in Queensland or the Northern Territory. Businesses working across state borders need to allow for those differences.

Final thoughts

The space sector in South Australia is growing fast, and the law is struggling to keep up. The businesses that do well will not simply be those with the best technology. They will be the ones that understand their licences, protect their intellectual property, handle Defence and export obligations with care, and set up their deals properly from the start.

If you are building, investing in, supplying or buying a business in the space or defence sector, we would be glad to talk with you. At Bird Law, we help clients deal with the commercial, regulatory and transactional questions that come with this new frontier, so they can focus on what they do best.

Authored by Alok Bhatia, Lawyer at Bird Law