---
title: Astronauts Visit UTS TechLab During IAC Sydney 2025
description: Visiting astronauts explored UTS TechLab collaborations including Metakosmos during the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney.
---

 Sep 8, 2026 · 5 min read

# Astronauts Visit UTS TechLab During IAC Sydney 2025

 Visiting astronauts explored UTS TechLab collaborations including Metakosmos during the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney.

![Metakosmos](https://www.blog.metakosmos.co/hubfs/metakasmos_logo/metakasmos%20(2).png)

 Metakosmos

 Metakosmos Editorial Team

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![Astronauts Visit UTS TechLab During IAC Sydney 2025](https://www.blog.metakosmos.co/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/A060_Company%20Update_%20Metakosmos%20Partners-2.webp)

Astronauts visited the University of Technology Sydney's TechLab facility during the 76th International Astronautical Congress in Sydney in 2025.

The group included Chris Sembroski, Sirisha Bandla, Tuva Atasever and Nora Al Matrooshi. They explored UTS collaborations with local start-ups including Advanced Navigation and Metakosmos, met the UTS Rocketry Team, and heard from Dr Kumar Degnath on sustainable composite materials for space applications.

## COMMENT FROM THE VISIT

Tuva Atasever described Turkey and Australia as emerging space nations with ambitions beyond their current capabilities, and the TechLab facility as evidence of that ambition.

Sirisha Bandla, a commercial astronaut with Virgin Galactic, noted the importance of collaboration in advancing space exploration.

## CONGRESS CONTEXT

The International Astronautical Congress is the largest gathering in the global space sector. Hosting it in Sydney placed Australian capability in front of an international audience of agency technical staff, prime contractor engineers and programme managers.

## REGIONAL CAPABILITY

Australia has no crewed launch capability and no astronaut corps. Its depth lies in the adjacent engineering that human systems draw on: subsea and remote operations, polar science, defence manufacturing and medical research, alongside [access to extreme analogue environments](https://www.metakosmos.co/deploy).

## UNIVERSITY FACILITIES

TechLab is structured for industry collaboration alongside internal research.

Access to instrumented facilities during development is cheaper for a hardware company than building equivalent capability. The company's own [validation infrastructure](https://www.metakosmos.co/prove) covers the human systems specific rigs that general facilities do not provide.

Partnership detail is published at [metakosmos.co/partners](https://www.metakosmos.co/partners).

## COMPANIES SHOWN

The TechLab visit covered UTS collaborations with Advanced Navigation, which supplies navigation and robotic systems, and Metakosmos on next-generation suit design.

The congress ran in Sydney in October 2025.

### References

- [Metakosmos - LABS](https://www.metakosmos.co/labs)
- [Metakosmos - Partners](https://www.metakosmos.co/partners)
- [Metakosmos - PROVE](https://www.metakosmos.co/prove)
- [Metakosmos - DEPLOY](https://www.metakosmos.co/deploy)
- [Metakosmos - Space](https://www.metakosmos.co/space)
- [Metakosmos - About](https://www.metakosmos.co/about)
- [Metakosmos - ENGAGE](https://www.metakosmos.co/engage)
- [Metakosmos - Media](https://www.metakosmos.co/media)
- [UTS — A giant leap for space collaborations](https://www.uts.edu.au/news/2025/10/giant-leap-space-collaborations)
- [Australian Manufacturing — Metakosmos and UTS spacesuit design collaboration](https://www.australianmanufacturing.com.au/sydney-startup-metakosmos-uts-pioneer-next-gen-spacesuit-designs/)
- [Kolling Institute — Researchers inform next-gen space suit design](https://kollinginstitute.org.au/news/researchers-inform-next-gen-space-suit-design/)

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