When the Soviet Union shocked the world by launching Sputnik into earth’s orbit in 1957, Australia was deeply involved in space research, both civil and defence. The country’s scientists worked closely with their counterparts from Britain and increasingly with the United States. Much of this work was conducted at Woomera which, due to Australia’s size, was the world’s largest rocket testing facility. Australia also played host to tracking stations – some of which still exist today. In the early 1960s, also Australia flirted with involvement in the European Launch Development Organisation, hoping to research space in a cooperative (and cheaper) format. Yet, as the space age entered the mid-1960s, Australia’s involvement in the leading research of this new frontier slipped, much to the chagrin of scientists. This paper will examine the Menzies Government’s early decisions on Australia’s space research, and the machinery that would govern it. While Australia conceived itself as a leading scientific nation, it nonetheless decided to refrain from embarking on a significant space research programme.  Using archival records, the paper will explore the ideas that underpinned these decisions and what effect they had on Australia’s early space research.