Events

Our Australian built and operated sister-satellite, Waratah Seed, has won the SmallSat Mission of the Year award at the SmallSat Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Backed by voting Australians and supported by the judges, Waratah Seed was crowned winner in of a field of 10 missions, including finalists from NASA Goddard, the European Space Agency, Purdue University, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Johns Hopkins University. The Mission of the Year award is a...

Waratah Seed-1 a Finalist for Mission of the Year Sister-satellite to CUAVA-2, the Waratah Seed-1 satellite mission has secured a spot on the finals for the AIAA Small Satellite Mission of the Year Award. The prestigious Small Satellite Mission of the Year Award, presented by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, includes finalists from NASA and the European Space Agency. Australians have the chance to support our ‘little Aussie satellite’ in a Public Vote...

CUAVA congratulates Australian Space Awards 2025 winners, Anita Ho-Baillie and Anne Bettens. Anita Ho-Baillie, who won the Academic of the Year Award 2025, is the John Hooke Chair of Nanoscience at Sydney Nano in the University of Sydney, and leads EurokaPower, whose perovskite solar cells have been successfully demonstrated on the Waratah Seed-1 mission and are also flying on CUAVA-2. Dr Anne Bettens won the Rising Star of the Year Award - SME for startup...

CUAVA, the Australian Research Training Centre for CubeSats, UAVs and their Applications led by the University of Sydney, is pleased to announce the CUAVA-2 satellite has now been in orbit for over 110 days, completing over 1800 revolutions around the Earth.  Like its sister-satellite, Waratah Seed-1, the CUAVA-2 mission launched into orbit on 17 August 2024 (AEST) on the SpaceX Transporter 11 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base. It was then successfully deployed approximately 515...

We are thrilled to share that this morning Sydney time both the CUAVA-2 and Waratah Seed-1 CubeSats were deployed into orbit by Exolaunch and SpaceX (first image) and that both satellites are alive, well, and communicating with us (second image). Congratulations and thank you to the many team members and partners that have made this possible, including all those at the ARC Training Centre for CubeSats, UAVs, and their Applications (CUAVA) , Waratah Seed Space...

Congratulations to CUAVA student Lincoln Bourke, who is off to NASA!   Limilngan and Mudburra man, Lincoln Bourke, an engineering and physics student, will spend 10 weeks at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory exploring how equipment could interact with the surface of other planets.  First joining CUAVA in 2022, Lincoln Bourke has been chosen as part of the first cohort for the National Indigenous Space Academy (NISA). NISA is based at Monash University and supported by the Australian...

CUAVA is delighted to announce that CUAVA PhD student and researcher Joshua Critchley-Marrows was awarded the W.G.P. Lamb 2023 Award from the Royal Institute of Navigation, presented in London on Wednesday 21 June 2023. Joshua Critchley-Marrows is the Director of research group CROSS, whose star tracker payload will be flown on CUAVA-2 mission early 2024. The Royal Institute of Navigation is a UK-based organisation, and is internationally recognised as a global authority on topics of...

Professor Iver Cairns, Director of CUAVA and the Waratah Seed Space Qualification Mission Iver Cairns has been awarded SCIENTIST OF THE YEAR 2023 by the Australian Space Awards. Winning from a group of 10 finalists, Professor Iver Cairns has dedicated his award to the scientists and students helping build Australia's space industry through CUAVA training centre. The awards event was held at the International Convention Centre in Sydney on Wednesday evening, 17 May 2023. Congratulations Iver! Read more about his win at University of Sydney News. Photo: University of Sydney...

We are pleased to announce that research centre SmartSat has committed over $1 million to support the development of new tech that will be tested on the Waratah Seed WS-1 rideshare mission, Australia’s first space qualification-focused ride-share mission. Andy Koronios, CEO of SmartSat CRC, said Waratah Seed is an historic step for NSW’s space industry. “SmartSat welcomes NSW’s commitment to Waratah Seed, and we are excited to be a part of such a momentous project. We...

We are pleased to announce that Professor Iver Cairns, Director of CUAVA and the Waratah Seed Space Qualification Mission has been nominated for two awards at the upcoming Australian Space Awards 2023: Academic of the Year and Scientist of the Year. Professor Iver Cairn’s nominations are presented alongside CUAVA and Waratah Seed associates Anne Bettens (University of Sydney, Deneb Space), Anita Ho-Baillie (University of Sydney, EurokaPower) and start-up EurokaPower, as finalists for the 2023 space awards.  Academic of the Year  • Anne Bettens, The University of Sydney, Deneb Space  • Professor...

CUAVA congratulates PhD student Naif Alsalem, who won 1st Prize this week in the Engineering and Science track at the 7th Saudi Scientific Symposium, Sydney, for his presentation of the development and applications of the RedEye-1 infrared imaging instrument, highlighting the role of the CUAVA and SAIL labs in developing space-based, UAV, and aerial instruments.

Congratulations to the Australian Centre for Space Engineering and Research (ACSER) on being awarded an ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities grant to fund development of a new Australian Spacecraft Innovation Laboratory.