Brett Biddington appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM)

In the 2012 Queen's Birthday Honours list Brett Biddington has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for:

 "service to the space sector, particularly through national policy and industry development, science and education support, and through governance of astronomy programs."

Brett has worked tirelessly over many years, and thoroughly deserves the honour and recognition of such a prestigious award.

Brett spent nearly 23 years in the Royal Australian Air Force, after which he became a member of Cisco Systems’ global space team that was responsible for developing the Internet Router In Space (IRIS) program, which led to a software router being launched into space.

He has served or currently serves on nearly every Board, Committee and Council in the Australian Space Industry, including chairman of the Space Industry Association of Australia, the Australian Space Industry Innovation Council, the Australian Telescope Steering Committee, the Kokoda foundation, ASRI, and he is an Adjunct Professor at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia (just to name a few).

Brett is also completing a PhD with the Australian Centre for Astrobiology, and spent many years working closely on the Square Kilometer Array project, which Australia was recently jointly awarded.

He has been a strong driving force in recent years behind the resurgence in Australian Space activities, and he has worked tirelessly to help form the upcoming Australian National Space Policy.

Brett - Thankyou for all of your hard work, and congratulations on your award!

Space jobs at RMIT and NBNCo

RMIT is currently looking for a Research Fellow, Space Tracking/Geodesy to join their Satellite Positioning for Atmosphere, Climate and Environment (SPACE) Research Centre.

The Role description includes:

Reporting to the Director of SPACE Research Centre RMIT University and Manager Modelling Analysis of EOSSS (EOS Space Systems Pty Ltd), you will be required to undertake research in the SPACE Research Centre specifically for the ASRP Grant project. You will work primarily on space tracking, real-time orbit determination (OD), atmospheric mass density modelling, space conjunction analysis, satellite laser ranging (SLR) and precise point positioning (PPP).

For more information, head here.

NBNCo is currently looking for a Project Coordinator - Satellite, with the role description:

Working within the Network Architecture and Technology (NA&T) group the Project Coordinator - Satellite will be responsible for overall project coordination and administration activities within the satellite engineering delivery team.

For more information, head here.

Happy Space job hunting!

Sold-Out Australasia Satellite Forum held in Sydney

The 2012 Australasia Satellite Forum was held in Sydney on the 16th of April, to a sold out audience of Asia-Pacific Satellite executives and industry representatives.

The key-note address was given by Nationals MP Luke Hartsuyker, whose speech can be found here. The speech devotes a lot of time to the National Broadband Network and coalition criticism on it. He does go on to deliver in-principle support to satellite services delivering broadband to rural Australia, whilst reminding the forum of the Aussat issues. Whilst it is good to see the coalition engaging in this type of forum, it would be far more interesting to know the coalitions future policies regarding the space and satellite telecommunications sector.

The forum also attracted industry experts from NewSat, NBNCo, Arianespace, Optus, Telstra, Thales Alenia Space, Space Systems Loral, Hughes, and many other companies.

The day's program can still be found here.