South Australia Wins The Nation's Space Agency

South Australia's winning bid for the National Space Agency is being hailed a win for everyone.

The nation's new Space HQ will go up on the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site by mid next year, as announced by the Prime Minister and Premier this morning.

Initially employing 20 staff, there's hope the industry will grow to hire 20,000 or more.

Wondering if that means we'll be landing on Mars soon?

Steven Marshall says the work of a Space Agency goes beyond other planets.

"It's really about tapping into the incredible opportunity of smaller satellites gathering information and feeding it back to improve productivity in our nation, whether that be on farms, in mines, on construction".

We spoke to Anton Middleberg from the University of Adelaide today who is predicting a rush of rockets launching from SA in the years ahead. 

"I think that's highly likely. We've got a history of launching them from Woomera and there's even some new sites being talked about in the State now" he said. 

"It also means a whole influx of new high tech industries and a re-invention of the South Australian economy" said Middleberg.

The local hub's aimed at tripling the space industry by 2030, lifting revenue to $12 billion and creating 20,000 jobs.