Australia has made significant contributions to space exploration, beginning in the 1950s when the Woomera Rocket Range was established. In 1967, the first satellite was launched, the Weapons Research Establishment Satellite (WRESAT). This made Australia the third country in the world to launch a satellite from its own territory. In 1969, Australia played a critical role in the Apollo 11 mission. The Parkes Radio Telescope in New South Wales was used to receive television signals from the Moon and broadcast them to the world. In 1970, the Australian Space Research Institute was established and in 1985 the Aussat system was launched. This provided Australia with its first national satellite communications network and improved communications across the country. The Australian Space Agency was established in 2011, and today Australia is involved in a wide range of space-related activities, including satellite communications, Earth observation, space science, and exploration.

Features:

• Stamp design: Otto Schmidinger and Christine Stead (Aussat 1986), Jo Muré, Australia Post Design
• Studio (Earth 2015), Nigel Buchanan (WRESAT 2017), Gary Domoney, VISUA (Parkes Telescope 2019)
• Stamp images: Leonello Calvetti/Getty Images (Earth 2015) courtesy Defence Science and Technology, Group Edinburgh (WRESAT 2017)
• NASA, 1xpert/Adobe Stock, Yegor Korzh Travel Photography (Parkes Telescope 2019).
• Cover design: Jason Watts, Australia Post Design Studio
• Cover images: Sono Creative, ket4up, drgost – all stock.adobe.com