Science

KANYINI

Earth observation / IoT technology demonstration · SmartSat CRC / South Australian Government / Inovor Technologies / Myriota

Kanyini is Australia's first state government-funded satellite, and its story has taken an unplanned dark turn since launch. Built entirely in Adelaide by a South Australian consortium—SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre, Inovor Technologies, and Myriota—the 6U CubeSat launched August 16, 2024 on SpaceX's Transporter-11 mission, carrying a HyperScout 2 hyperspectral-and-thermal imager alongside an IoT payload for Myriota to test in orbit. Named by local schoolchildren, Kanyini spent its first several months delivering solid results: functioning solar panels and batteries, working X-band communications, and its first processed images of Kangaroo Island, the Yorke Peninsula, and Adelaide. Then, in mid-2025, the mission suffered a critical anomaly that compromised the payload interface computer, cutting off communication with both the hyperspectral imager and the IoT payload while leaving the rest of the spacecraft's systems fully functional. SmartSat CRC has continued monitoring and collecting telemetry, and the mission—costing 6.5 million Australian dollars—had already achieved its core goal of proving South Australia could design, build, and fly its own satellite, feeding into seven separate research projects including collaborations with NASA and ESA, even as the anomaly limits what science it can still return.