Three Australian space companies have united to launch a bushfire satellite into space inside a space taxi with the key mission to detect and track bushfires. The technology, which is the work of Queensland-based company Fireball International, can detect and report on bushfires less than three minutes after they start. It provides automated bushfire detection and tracking by analysing images from sensors in real-time and sends notifications and maps to emergency responders after detecting a fire. “This is an Australian-built taxi, which will bring an Australian-built satellite which looks for fires and has a national interest, which is launched by an Australian-built rocket and from an Australian spaceport in Queensland,” Fireball International chief executive Christoper Tylor told InnovationAus. Fireball currently relies on Japanese satellites launched by the Japan Space Agency to monitor bushfires in Australia. Australian companies Space Machines Company (SMC) and Gilmore Space Technologies have also joined up to …