This is the best summary I could come up with:

The observation program was intended to fund satellites that would be used to provide data for everything from weather forecasting to GPS to natural disaster response.

"This is an industry-wide hit," Bec Shrimpton, the director of Defence Strategy and National Security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) told 7.30.

In an interview with 7.30, Science and Industry Minister Ed Husic denied the decision to cut the billion-dollar program was politically motivated, and said it was about making savings in the budget.

"I understand that people won't be fans of cutting a billion dollars of funding that was going to be directed towards their sector … But I've got to make calls as a minister and as part of a broader government that is trying to rein in a budget deficit."

We also made a definite decision around allowing the space sector to be able to access the $15 billion national reconstruction fund," he told 7.30.

"We are scanning the sub-surface for resources, whether that's critical minerals or water on the moon and Mars," Mr Pearson told 7.30 from Fleet's Adelaide workshop.

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