Overview
- 2026 RWA National Finalist Angela Teale has co-founded Starsite Australia, delivering a $25 million satellite ground station in regional WA that will support international lunar missions, including NASA's Artemis program.
- The Mullewa-based project is creating around 100 local jobs and prioritises regional capability, demonstrating how investment in rural communities can drive high-tech industry growth.
- Angela is using her RWA platform and $15,000 grant to deliver STEM education programs and support emerging female leaders, aiming to increase women's representation in the space industry.
When 2026 Rural Women's Award National Finalist Angela Teale moved to Geraldton for love, a four and a half hour drive from Western Australia's Perth, she didn't think she'd be able to continue her career as a rocket scientist.
"At the time I really thought that I was going to have to give up my career in the space industry entirely. I remember thinking I'd be a barista," Angela says. "The day we bought our house in Geraldton, my dad sent me a job ad for a satellite tracking station nearby. What are the chances?"
Angela's life in Geraldton is a world away from where she grew up - and she's now co-founded a company that works a world away in space. Growing up among the cornfields of America's rural Iowa, Angela's love of space and aerodynamics was fostered from a young age by her parents who worked in the Air Force.
"We used to launch model rockets, launching carpet tubes with car batteries and making our own rocket fuel because we wanted to make them bigger and more powerful."
After graduating high school, Angela joined the Air Force where she fell in love with the space industry. After studying orbital mechanics and satellite systems, the self-proclaimed "space nerd" spent eight years in the force, going on to specialise in astrodynamics. It was while working in the commercial space industry that Angela started chatting online to a friendly Aussie who shared her love of skydiving.
"In 2010 Peter said, 'you should come to Australia to visit'. I told my parents I was going on a yoga retreat because they would have killed me if they knew I was flying to Australia to meet a guy," Angela laughs. "When I landed and first saw him in the airport, I said to myself, 'that's my husband'. It was love at first sight."
The pair have now been married 14 years and share a nine year old daughter, Victoria. When Peter was made redundant in 2022 from his position as a Fly In Fly Out production technician at Woodside Energy, the couple started to think about how they could work together.
"At that time, I was looking at a bunch of reports on what's the next big thing in the space industry - and one of the most important investments needed in the next 15 years is ground stations."
A ground station is essentially a giant antenna that communicates with satellites. This includes transmitting data and enabling astronauts to talk to their families. Peter and Angela decided to go all in, founding ground station housing company Starsite Australia and purchasing 95 acres in 2024 outside the tiny Western Australian town of Mullewa. Situated around 100-kilometres from Geraldton, the region is ideal for a ground station with very low radio frequency interference and strong power infrastructure.
Almost immediately, Starsite was assigned to build a 20-metre, world-leading "parabolic dish"- the whole project worth $25 million – for Norwegian company, Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT).
"We're building the Ferrari of antennas for them – they'll be supporting the Artemis missions and any of the lunar missions back to the moon," Angela explains.
The construction, which started December 2025, will take around 12-months to complete and employ around 100 locals, from engineers and surveyors to contractors.
"It's one of our big philosophies to use local capability. By building our business, it builds their business, and makes a beautiful, capable community," Angela says. "Unlike larger metropolitan firms, these regional teams can mobilise quickly, solve emerging design and construction challenges on the fly, and adapt to the specific demands of outback operations."
And the project is perfectly timed, with the United States and NASA announcing in April 2026 they would be investing $50 billion into a base on the moon.
"It's very timely to have lunar infrastructure. Artemis 3 is launching next year, and Artemis 4 plans to land humans on the moon in 2028. This marks the beginning of what will be a permanent presence on the moon," Angela says. "In the next 10 years, I would hope that Mullewa is called the Lunar Node Australia, as the world's first commercial ground station that's dedicated to lunar antennas."
Angela credits some of Starsite's success to her and Peter's neurodivergence.
"We have ADHD and I think that, quite honestly, without it, we would not be a successful business," she says. "You go down the rabbit holes until you have all the information and the creativity to do it in different ways."
Angela was recently announced as the 2026 Western Australian AgriFutures Rural Women's Award winner for her innovation. As part of her prize, the space expert will receive a $15,000 grant, which Angela intends to use to run rocket programs and STEM education in schools as well as offering professional development to Starsite's site manager, Emily Goddard.
"They say less than two per cent of the STEM industry leaders are women. That's terrible," Angela says. "I'd like to try to produce women who I know are brilliant people into capable leaders in STEM."
Now, Starsite has more than 300 acres earmarked for future ground stations across Western Australia and the United States' South Dakota. Breaking new ground and space all while living in and loving regional Australia.
"When you move to a place like Geraldton, everybody understands we're a community here. If you need help, you just put your hand up," Angela enthuses. "It's the most welcoming and understanding community."
This is article is a feature from the Australian Country Style Magazine.
