UNIQUE CONNECTION TO THE GLOBAL SPACE INDUSTRY

Australia has always had a unique connection to the global space industry, including the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon. In 1969 after landing on the Moon for the very first time, both Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were scheduled for a sleep period ordered by Houston. Due to the excitement of actually being on the Moon, Armstrong and Aldrin skipped the scheduled sleep period informing Houston they would begin their EVA earlier than anticipated.

Due to the rotation of the Earth, Honeysuckle Creek tracking station (a 26m dish) in New South Wales, was right in line to receive the footage of Neil Armstrong stepping on to the Lunar surface. For those first iconic images of Neil on the lunar surface was forever tied to Australia, just because the astronauts couldn’t sleep!

ROAD TRIP

Starting in Brisbane, the Aussienaut® Road Trip will travel to locations right around the country to show how closely linked Australia is to the international and Australian Space Industry. A unique social media experience, the road trip will cover:

• Our unique history in supporting some of the biggest missions around the solar system using the Canberra Deep Space Network (DSN);

• A visit to Woomera, South Australia where Australia launched our own satellite to Low Earth Orbit in 1967;

• Australian space companies and start-ups all forging a new path for the industry in education; building rockets and satellites; space data or those simply crafting new on-orbit capability;

• Launch locations now ready to launching to multiple orbits or test facilities for new satellite / rocket components;

• Regional communities capacity and capability to support the industry.

A UNIQUE SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERIENCE / GLOBAL AUDIENCE

Throughout the Road Trip, host Josh Keegan, will continuously engage with YouTube and other social media, providing updates and livestreams from each location along the route to an international audience in the United States, Europe, UK, Ukraine and AUSTRALIA. Each post, livestream or cross will provide multiple opportunities to:

• Highlight unique features and capability of each town;

• Engage with each local and indigenous communities;

• Promote sponsors and supporting businesses though advertising, tagging and reviews.