The first Australian-built satellites in 15 years have been launched into space by NASA after being developed by Australian universities.

Fast facts: A cargo space craft launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

A cargo space craft launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station The satellite, built by the University of Adelaide, is about the size of a loaf of bread

The satellite, built by the University of Adelaide, is about the size of a loaf of bread The mini satellite will be deployed from the International Space Station in about a month

The mini satellite will be deployed from the International Space Station in about a month About 50 students and a dozen staff have worked on the project

One of the miniaturised satellites called the CubeSat was built over four years by about 50 University of Adelaide (UOA) staff and students.

It is one of three "nanosatellites" developed in Australia as part of a research project involving Australian universities under the European-funded project, QB50 — an international network of 50 CubeSats.

They will play a key role in investigating the thermosphere — a layer of atmosphere from about 95 kilometres to 500 kilometres from the Earth's surface — with the aim of increasing understanding of climate and weather modelling.

The satellite will be deployed from the International Space Station into the thermosphere in about one month to take measurements.

Loading...

Research fellow at UOA's School of Mechanical Engineering Mathew Tetlow said it had been a huge learning experience.

"It's a great feeling," Dr Tetlow said.

"I mean we went into it with the objective of developing skills and developing capability and knowledge and it's been a very rocky road.

"They changed launches on us. They threw in a whole lot of requirements late in the piece, so it's been a real rollercoaster ride but it's been an absolutely fantastic experience and a great experience for the state."

Matt Tetlow at work on the satellite in the lab. ( ABC News )

Hopes that Australia will return to space industry

The South Australian State Government granted $300,000 towards the development of the University of Adelaide satellite.

Dr Tetlow said it was just the beginning of Australia's involvement in the billion-dollar space industry.

"I think it's really important that we have a bit of momentum now," he said.

"There's a lot of discussion both at the federal and state level about the growing space industry and I think it's really important that we leverage that and build this into something that's meaningful and sustainable."

Loading...

'Really big firsts for Australia'

Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research (ACSER) director at the University of NSW Andrew Dempster, who is also a member of the advisory council of the Space Industry Association of Australia, said there had only been two previous Australian satellites launched in 1967 and 2002.

"So we've got more hardware in space today than Australia's had in its history," Mr Dempster said.

Iver Cairns, from the University of Sydney, was at the launch and he said it was a big day for Australian space research.

PhD student Jiro Funamoto, Professor Iver Cairns and electronics engineer Wayne Peacock with INSPIRE-2. ( Supplied: University of Sydney )

"These will be the fourth, fifth and sixth satellites ever built in Australia that are launched into space, first ones going to the international space station," Professor Cairns said.

"The first CubeSats that are Australian going into space, so there are some really big firsts qualitatively for Australia.

"It's a very exciting thing to do, it's something that we in Australia ought to be doing more regularly, and we hope this is the start of a real Australian space effort."

The launch was aired live on NASA TV just after midnight.