Start me up Science Creates Business

From their headquarters in Helensvale on the Gold Coast, Adam and James Gilmour are shooting for the stars.

The founders of Gilmour Space Technologies, an InnovationAus 2021 Awards for Excellence winner, have turned their start-up into one of Australia’s leading space companies as they pioneer hybrid propulsion technologies that offer the prospect of cheaper access to space. As the business prepares to send a small launch vehicle into space later this year, the success story is just one of many that can be told in Queensland, where State Government support has helped give entrepreneurs a launch pad to chase their dreams.

FIND THE BEST PEOPLE, GET THEM ON BOARD, GIVE THEM SPACE AND TIME, AND THEN GET OUT OF THE WAY

In the aerospace sector alone, Queensland’s innovation culture is delivering results.

• Black Sky Aerospace is making largescale solid rocket motors and plans to expand its capability to produce all the materials required to manufacture rockets including solid fuel for both space and defence applications.

• Hypersonix Launch Systems is using hydrogen-powered scramjet engines to launch small satellites;

• exci.ai (previously known as Fireball International) is employing technology originally used to look at supernova explosions to identify and map wildfires;

• and Raytracer is developing underwater virtual-reality training simulations for astronauts. The scope of the ideas is breathtaking

When I first set foot in The University of Queensland two decades ago as a researcher and professor, I received some astute counsel from then Vice-Chancellor Emeritus Professor John Hay and his successor Professor