Australia's Newest Spy Satellite Companies

The Air & Space section of the excellent Asia-Pacific Defence Reporter (APDR) website is a good start:

-  leading to "New satellites to boost Australia’s national security capability" APDR, July 7, 2020.

"Australian-based company LatConnect 60 announced Tuesday (7 July) a global space partnership to build and deploy a smart satellite constellation over Australian skies to help the Australian government and commercial clients monitor and protect their interests in the region. The announcement comes amid rising global tensions, with the Australian prime minister last week announcing a A$1.35 billion response to a major cyber-attack targeting Australia by a state-based actor. With plans to launch in June 2021, the new low earth orbit smart satellite constellation will provide close to real-time data on request to clients giving Australia a boost to its strategic observation capabilities.

The key industries set to benefit from access to the new RF Signal Intelligence and High Resolution Multispectral Imaging include government security and intelligence agencies...and maritime. Potential examples of use are maritime surveillance..."

"...LatConnect 60’s smart satellite constellation offers a valuable service differentiator in the geospatial market by collecting high-resolution Earth Observation (EO) imagery products and RF signal intelligence at the same timestamp, and processing it on-orbit with machine learning capabilities to make sense of the data..."

"...LatConnect 60 has chosen to set up its headquarters in Perth, while it is also plugged into the growing South Australian space ecosystem and is a start-up member of the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre based in Adelaide..."

"...LatConnect 60 is collaborating with satellite partner York Space Systems and Perth’s Curtin University, which will develop local capability in WA...."

See the Asia-Pacific Defence Reporter's WHOLE ARTICLE 
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Wrote Debra Werner, SpaceNews, June 9, 2020 “LatConnect 60 selects York to build and operate satellites”:

“SAN FRANCISCO – Australian Earth observation startup LatConnect 60 announced plans June 9 to hire York Space Systems to manufacture small satellites and to operate its Earth observation constellation.

LatConnect 60, a company founded in 2019, plans to launch its first satellite in 2021 and to establish an initial constellation of three satellites with multiple payloads, including radio frequency detection sensors and multispectral imaging cameras.

By relying on artificial intelligence, each LatConnect 60 satellite will be “able to autonomously geolocate and process RF signals identified in order to trigger its imaging payload and any other secondary payloads” to collect data, according to a June 9 news release. Data collected will be “fused and delivered to end users in an Activity Intelligence Report,” the release added...” 

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PETE COMMENT

Australia may want greater autonomy (at least in cheaper, much smaller and more easily launched Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites) from Australia's traditional LEO satellite provider, the US. Small Australian LEO satellites can be launched with small booster/rockets from the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia. Cape York is relatively close to the Equator, giving a greater Earth rotational boost to a rocket-satellite launch and importantly there is open ocean to the east for a safer-less-politically-complex west to east rocket trajectory.

However reliance on the US, specifically the National Reconaissance Office (actual US Government NRO website) will remain. This is for much larger satellites, which after launch are parked at much higher altitudes, hence needing more difficult/much larger boosters to launch. These are called geo-stationary (aka geo-synchronous) (GSO) reconnaissance satellites. 

The main customer-regional "fusion" center (collection and some analysis) for most of the LEO and GSO reconnaissance satellite data may well be Pine Gap which likely passes on data and some analysis to Canberra, Washington D.C. and regional commands.

High on the maritime reconnaissance satellite sensor priority list may be development of technologies capable of detecting submerged Chinese submarines.

Pete