Australia’s first commercial, space-capable rocket has blasted off from the Koonibba test range on South Australia’s far-west coast.
Key points:
A rocket has blasted off from the Koonibba Aboriginal community
It is the first commercial space rocket launch in Australia
A planned take-off on Tuesday failed
Southern Launch said today’s launch aimed to reach 85 kilometres, which would make it the highest any commercial rocket had reached from Australian soil.
A second rocket was successfully fired off about 11:45am.
The launch occurred without the politicians and 200 Koonibba Aboriginal community members who attended Tuesday’s launch.
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DEWC, a company boasting a “passion” for electronic warfare, has teamed up with Southern Launch to test launching processes.
DEWC is developing satellites that will be capable of helping the Australian Defence Force detect potentially dangerous radar signals from enemy forces.
The payload’s purpose is to collect information with its built-in sensors on its journey back to Earth to assist with DEWC’s development of satellite technology.
The information will be collected and incorporated into the company’s software.
The rocket takes off from the Koonibba test range.(Vimeo: Southern Launch)
Federal Defence Industry Minister Melissa Price said the launch forms part of the Royal Australian Air Force’s Plan Jericho advanced sensing program to detect and track challenging targets.
On Tuesday, SA Premier Steven Marshall said the rocket launch was the first commercial one in Australia.
“All of the previous launches have been government launches, so it is a historic time and I think this is really a taste of what’s to come in Australia,” he said.
“Disappointed” was the word of the day after Australia’s much-awaited first private rocket launch failed at an Aboriginal community on South Australia’s far west coast.
Key points:
A crowd had gathered for the rocket launch at Koonibba
The rocket was carrying a device which will gather data for designing satellites
The businesses involved say they can learn from the launch failure
But space industry companies Southern Launch and DEWC are confident they will still see a launch by the end of this week.
A crowd of more than 200 at the Koonibba Aboriginal community was counting down until lift-off when Southern Launch chief executive Lloyd Damp announced there had been a misfire.
“We ignited the rocket motor but the rocket itself, the propellant, didn’t ignite,” Mr Damp said.
“This is one of the things we’ve been training for and practising for the last few days.
The control room for the Koonibba rocket launch.(ABC News: Stacey Lee)
“We’ll unpack the rocket, work out what went wrong, and we might be back as early as tomorrow to try again.
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Koonibba Aboriginal School students who came to watch said they were disappointed.
“We just came out here for six and a half hours for no reason,” one boy said.
DEWC, whose slogan is “electronic warfare is our passion”, is developing satellites that will be capable of detecting potentially dangerous radar signals from enemy forces.
It was the first company to team up with Southern Launch to test launching processes.
The payload’s purpose was to collect information with its built-in sensors as it fell back to Earth to assist with DEWC’s development of satellite technology.
Koonibba Aboriginal School students were excited in the lead-up to the rocket launch.(ABC News: Evelyn Leckie)
‘Our mission will go ahead’
DEWC chief executive Ian Spencer said although the misfire was a little disappointing, he was glad it was “out of the way”.
“I don’t think it’s a real rocket launch activity unless we have at least one failure to launch,” Mr Spencer said.
“Our mission will go ahead and I’m sure we’ll get a launch out of it this week.”
A crowd turned up to watch the rocket launch but left disappointed.(ABC News: Evelyn Leckie)
Mr Spencer said DEWC was partway through designing satellites that would help the Australian Defence Force.
“We’re taking some of the information that we were going to learn this week to incorporate into some of our software,” he said.
“That’s on track and ahead of schedule. We expect to deliver that concept demonstrator next year.
“If we’re fortunate enough, we’ll be able to push that through in 18 months.
‘Next step’ in the space industry
Royal Australian Air Force Group Captain Tobyn Bearman said the air force was interested in supporting DEWC and Southern Launch in experimenting with the “next step” of sensors that were built into the rocket’s payload.
“These are next-generation sensors that we’re exploring — what they can provide in terms of information from the upper atmosphere and how we can use that information to improve our situational awareness on the battlefield,” Group Captain Bearman said.
SA Premier Steven Marshall (left) speaks to DEWC chief executive Ian Spencer (second from right) at the Koonibba rocket launch site.(ABC News: Evelyn Leckie)
SA Premier Steven Marshall put a positive spin on today’s event.
“With innovation like this, there are often lots of steps which are taken. There will be another attempt for a launch again,” he said.
“This will be the first commercial space company rocket launch in Australia ever.
“All of the previous launches have been government launches, so it is a historic time and I think this is really a taste of what’s to come in Australia.”
