Gold Coast Based Gilmore Space Technologies Announce Defence Partnership
1st June 2020
Highlights
- Gold Coast based Gilmour Space Technologies have announced an exciting new partnership with Defence.
- Learn about their planned expansion, benefits for the local economy and opportunities for the tech sector.
Gold Coast company Gilmour Space Technologies and Defence have joined forces to work together on space technologies under a new strategic agreement. The leading hybrid rocket launch provider is developing lower-cost, reliable and dedicated rockets to launch small satellites into low earth orbits.
The new partnership between Gilmour Space Defence Science and Technology and will research defence-related technologies including propulsion, materials and avionics technologies, to help develop a three-stage hybrid rocket that will launch small payloads and satellites.
This week QLD State Manager Holly Bretherton interviewed James Gilmour, COO and Co-founder of Gilmour Space Technologies to find out more….
What’s the time frame for the expansion kicking off? Are you staying Gold Coast based?
We currently have 50 employees in our Gold Coast rocket facility, and are looking to grow our team organically to around 60 by next year. With additional investment from the government and investors, we look to ramp up our headcount significantly to over 500 new employees within the next three years, particularly as we begin our commercial rocket manufacturing, ground support and launch activities.
Of course, we love the Gold Coast and hope to continue growing our business here. However, in the longer run, it would also depend on the city and state's focus and support for space activities, including an orbital launch site in Queensland.
What does this agreement means for technology jobs locally in Queensland, and for the local economy?
This defence agreement recognises our company's advances in space manufacturing and launch, which is a high-tech sector that was never there before.
As the leading rocket company in Australia, we are also trying to engage with the Queensland government to help set up a rocket R&D test facility and orbital launch site here. If that goes ahead, then we would see hundreds of additional jobs opening up in regional Queensland in the areas like launch site operations and space tourism. Over time, this site would become a nexus for related space activities and businesses, including payload integration and small satellite manufacturing.
The success of homegrown companies like Gilmour Space will create more jobs and opportunities for our local STEM graduates to engage in an exciting and growing future industry without leaving Australia.
What type of tech roles will you be recruiting for?
At Gilmour Space alone, we would be looking for fabricators and technicians, more engineers (the whole gamut from mechanical, electrical and materials to software engineers), ICT, marketers, accountants, legal people, administration and human resources, etc.
How can interested tech professionals find out more, or apply for the jobs that have been mentioned in the news reports?
Please check out our careers page at: https://www.gspacetech.com/career for updates. As mentioned, however, our ability to employ significantly more would depend on the support we get, so please do speak to your local MPs and get them to push for more space tech development in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia!