While traditional geostationary satellites for communications and broadcast media fly around 36,000 kilometres above earth, smaller satellites can fly as low as 300 kilometres above the earth.

Supply of these smaller satellites - which are used for imaging, mapping, and potentially soon for transmission of the internet - is expected to proliferate in the next few years due to rapid reductions in production costs. This in turn should boost demand for rockets to launch them into orbit

"We are fundamentally trying to build what we truly believe will be the lowest cost rocket in the market," founder Adam Gilmour tells The Australian Financial Review.

The company is aiming to launch satellites with 380 kilograms of capacity for around $8 million, which is "significantly lower per kilogram than RocketLab or Virgin Galactic," he said.

RocketLab, a New Zealand firm, launched a 3D-print rocket into space last week, a significant development for the nascent industry, despite it failing to reach orbit.

Mr Gilmour, a former investment banker at Citi, who up until now has self-financed his company, said the firm is aiming for an orbital launch in around three years.

"We will see in the next five to ten years a massive increase in the number of satellites going up, and the number of small satellite companies forming," he said. "We think the launch market for small satellites in the next five years is gong to be worth about around $1 billion a year, and we would like to get a significant percentage of that market."

Over the long term, the company aims to develop a rocket capable of delivering 500 kilograms of payload to the surface of mars and 600 kilograms to the surface of the moon.

It is the second space-related investment for Blackbird in the space of two months. In April, Blackbird led a $5 million funding round for South Australia-based nano space satellite tech start-up Fleet.

The renaissance for space-related firms in Australia comes despite the high profile collapse of NewSat, an ASX listed satellite company, in 2015.

"The way people are going about space is really different to what it was five or ten years ago," Blackbird Ventures partner Rick Baker said. "This new wave, [does not require] huge amounts of capital, or long lead times, or government funding."