Canberra space company secures UK government contract

Working with UK-based company Northern Space and Security Limited (NORSS), Canberra's Nominal Systems will develop a spacecraft and missions simulator solution.

Co-founder Dr Christopher Capon said their system would help UK Space Command to design and test new ideas ahead of missions, allowing them to build products "and integrate them with other commercial capabilities on orbit".

"We provide a platform that lets people build complex simulations, integrate hardware so they can do that testing as early as possible and as easily as possible," Dr Capon said.

"[We look at how] you develop confidence that your design is right, that you've done the testing that you need, and that your operation plans are going to work."

"So in a nutshell, that's what we're about: providing the tools that make rocket science easy."

Nominal Systems was founded by Dr Capon and Dr Brenton Smith in 2019, an offshoot from the space group at UNSW's Australian Defence Force Academy. It now has 11 employees.

The company has so far mainly hired people from the gaming industry, and hasn't yet faced the shortages many ACT businesses have in attracting skilled workers.

"There's actually a huge talent problem, in my mind, in the space industry generally at the moment in Australia," Dr Capon said.

"Because there's a limited number of people who have actually put something into orbit, and there's a big stepping stone from talking about designing something and ... actually doing it."

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Dr Capon said landing the $1.54 million UK contract, of which the majority will go to Nominal Systems, likely came down to his team's fresh perspective.

"We were competing against a lot of big-name brands in the space industry for that contract," he said.

"And I think part of the reason that we won it is because we had a fresh idea and a new way to solve a complex problem that was more flexible and just fit what the the UK Ministry of Defence needed."

Dr Capon said the capital was "hitting above its weight" when it comes to the space industry.

The ACT government plans to establish a cyber, space and advanced technology hub by 2025, in an effort to build these industries up and attract more skilled workers to the region.

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