Hanwha teams up with Australian startup for space business

South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace Co. has joined hands with Australian startup Gilmour Space Technologies in the space business, bolstering cooperation between the two countries.

Hanwha, Korea’s answer to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, said on Thursday it had signed an MOU with Gilmour on space business collaboration at the Land Forces 2024 International Land Defence Exposition in Melbourne.

Hanwha and Gilmour agreed to seek measures for the use of rocket launch sites in Australia, promote bilateral space industry cooperation, develop new space businesses and more.

The Korean company expected cooperation to involve various sectors. Australia has  rocket launch sites as well as strong demand for satellite images to deal with natural disasters such as forest fires.

“We aim to strengthen our two countries' partnership in the space industry based on the trust established through the export of K9 howitzers and the Redback infantry fighting vehicles,” said a Hanwha official.

Hanwha won a $2.4 billion deal to supply the armored vehicles to Australia in December 2023 and inked a $788 million contract to provide the K9 self-propelled howitzers to the country back in December 2021.

Write to Hyeon-woo Oh at ohw@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.