Australian company Skykraft's satellites have been launched into space for the first time, as part of a project to create a global air traffic management system.
The five satellites, manufactured in Canberra, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket earlier today.
The launch is the first of more than 200 satellites set to orbit the Earth during the next two years as part of a project to make air travel safer, smoother and more efficient.
They will undergo a three-month testing process before they can be used by Airservices Australia.
Launch will ensure global coverage of air traffic management
Skykraft chief executive Michael Frater said today's launch would help to provide global coverage for air traffic management for the first time.
"So it means that in outback Australia or in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, pilots will have exactly the same access to air traffic control systems as they would if they were close to Canberra Airport," Mr Frater said.
"At the moment, air traffic management relies on communication between aircraft and ground-based radio systems and that only works when they're within range, which is about 400 kilometres.
"So it means that there are large areas of the Earth's surface, particularly over oceans, where there is no coverage from those systems, and by putting radios into space on our satellites we'll be able to provide global coverage for air traffic management for the first time."
Five satellites were launched today, as a "proof of concept", but eventually about 200 will be orbiting the Earth as part of the system.
Chief innovation officer Craig Benson has previously said the goal of the system was to make air travel "safer, faster, cheaper and with fewer emissions".
"Space is not really about 'space', it's about the Earth," Dr Benson said last year.
"We put receivers in space – they give global coverage: every aircraft's tracked, every minute of its flight – second by second updates – that increases safety.
"We also talk directly into the cockpit so the pilots can talk on the same radio that they use to taxi at Sydney airport all the way across the Pacific to land in Los Angeles without having to go into black zones where they have to increase separation and burn more fuel as a result."
Mr Frater said the project would also make air travel more environmentally friendly.
"If this technology is used to choose more efficient routes for aircraft to fly, then that reduces the amount of fuel that they burn," he said.
