Roger Franzen (space engineer)

Did You Know?

• Franzen holds professional engineering accreditations including Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) and International Professional Engineer (IntPE).
• He began his engineering career in Australia before relocating to the United Kingdom and Europe to work on commercial and defence-related space missions.
• The Giant Magellan Telescope, to which Franzen contributed, is under construction in Chile with a primary mirror diameter of 25.4 meters.

Career

Roger Franzen got his start working on European Space Agency and commercial space missions, then came back to Australia in the mid-1980s to join Auspace Limited, one of the country’s first space engineering firms. He ran Auspace as managing director from 1998 to 2006, handling national satellite and systems-engineering projects. In 2001, he was an inaugural member of the International Space Advisory Group, which the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Science and Resources, Warren Entsch, asked to find ways for Australia to join international space programs and weigh the scientific and commercial gains. He left Auspace in 2007 to start Earthspace, a consultancy offering technical advice and project planning to government, defence, and commercial clients. While there, he sat on the Interim Aerospace Council that set up the National Aerospace Centre in Canberra. From 2010 to 2015, Franzen took on leadership roles at the Australian National University, including Technical Program Manager of the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics and work with the Advanced Instrumentation and Technology Centre on space instrumentation.

Recognition and honours

Roger Franzen was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2025 King’s Birthday Honours for his distinguished work in space, complex systems engineering, and aerospace and satellite communications. He also received Engineers Australia’s highest honour, becoming an Honorary Fellow for his impact on Australian space engineering.

Selected publications

Franzen’s work appears in industry and technical publications, most notably as co-author with Naomi Mathers on a 2012 International Astronautical Congress paper about linking Mt Stromlo Observatory’s astronomical instruments to space systems. He also co-wrote the 2014 paper “STARS – Space Technology Astronomy Research Student Program” with Mathers and others for the same congress. Through Engineers Australia’s National Committee on Space Engineering, he has produced policy and capability papers focused on Australia’s space engineering workforce and ecosystem.