The war in Ukraine has put a focus on Australia's communication vulnerabilities and dependence on allies like the US to protect its satellites, warn top military officials during Defence's Air and Space Power conference in Canberra on Tuesday.

The newly launched space command, with 105 personnel based in Canberra and Adelaide with plans for rapid recruitment, will develop space lift capability and launch a 100-kilogram satellite in 2023.

The space command was "so far behind" other countries and faces numerous challenges on day one of its launch on Tuesday according to its new domain commander Air Vice-Marshal Cath Roberts, after Australia ceded the space race to bigger powers in the 1970s.

"There are threats that are publicly known and there are others obviously that we're aware of and we need to be able to protect our assets in space," Air Vice-Marshal Roberts said, including the Sky Master orbital system that powers Australia's National Broadband Network.

"The activities of Russia and China scared me the most ... Ukraine is a good example of where space becomes very contested, and people are very reliant on that if they want to do those military operations.

Recent space-based actions have worried Defence and its allies, such as Russia blowing up one of its satellites adding to the nearly 44,000 pieces of tracked space debris that threaten the world's satellite communication systems. China last month demonstrated its ability to grab objects in space and throw them out of orbit.

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Australia is far behind but driven to accelerate its own capability, Air Vice-Marshal Roberts said. Right now the only capability she has to respond to threats in space is to send a tweet. "A tweet is not very good, [but] I can speak to my allies, particularly the US."

General James Dickinson, who leads US Space Command, has been visiting Canberra to congratulate Australia for launching its new Defence space command. He recognised that Australia was dependent on the US for now, but would catch up and could play an important role for the space community, especially in space domain awareness.

"Australia has great geography for that when you look at how big it is and where it is in the southern hemisphere," General Dickinson said.

"The Chinese are very interested [this region too]. Location, location, location. I think they're probably looking carefully at where they could be because as they mature their space architecture, they're finding that they have to have the ability to look up and command and control their assets that they're putting in orbit."

His takeaway from the war in Ukraine was that space remains of global importance, not just for militaries as commercial industries were increasingly playing a role in capability.

"We have come to rely on [space] and we need to make sure that we're able to defend it."

What constitutes responsible behaviour in space is hotly contested with Russia and China not yet willing to play by the same rules as other space-faring powers.

A dozen countries are racing to grow offensive and defensive space capabilities as the everyday lives of their citizens are increasingly dependent on space-based communication.

Air Force chief Air Marshal Mel Hupfeld said for Defence to achieve credible deterrence against actions against Australia's interests and to respond with credible loss when required, it needed to have resilience capabilities that embrace innovation, but it was committed to the relative peace the world has enjoyed as a result of global cooperation.

"You can rely on us to continue to participate in and further these principles of international law, cooperation and peace," Air Marshal Hupfeld said.

Australia's newly released Defence space strategy envisages a sovereign space capability, supporting a national space commercial enterprise and supporting Australia's national security.