First rocket launch at Southern Launch’s Koonibba test range in regional SA within months
A rocket will be launched from the new Southern Launch test range within months. While it’s only a small one, dwarfed by NASA, the boss says this is the “rumble before the avalanche”.
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South Australia’s space sector will take a “giant leap” forward this year, with its first rocket launch at a new test range in the state’s far west to be held within months.
Adelaide space start-up Southern Launch will fire a rocket about 100km into space from its Koonibba test range, further cementing SA as the space capital of Australia and paving the way for an influx of future work.
The DART rocket is just 3.4m long and weighs just 34kg.
It’s a fraction of NASA’S Mighty Saturn V, which stood 110m tall and weighed 3 million kilograms at lift-off.
But aerospace engineer and Southern Launch chief executive Lloyd Damp believes the launch will be the “rumble before the start of the avalanche” for SA’s fledgling space industry.
Mr Damp says the looming opportunities for SA are “in the order of billions of dollars” with lucrative government contracts on the horizon and a “multitude” of foreign space companies eyeing the state.
The DART rocket will launch fellow SA defence contractor DEWC Systems’s payload of antennas, sensors and communication devices into space, beyond Earth’s atmosphere but not into orbit, allowing it to conduct vital tests.
The equipment will endure 50 times its own weight in G-forces at the launch, and freezing temperatures and extreme heat on re-entry into the atmosphere.
“Any data that you collect, you can literally plug a computer into the side of the experiment and download it,” Mr Damp said.
“That’s something you can’t do if you put a satellite up into orbit.”
A number of space companies were looking to move rocket manufacturing to South Australia to be closer to its launch facilities at Whalers Way on the Eyre Peninsula and at Koonibba, Mr Damp said.
“That is a huge boon for SA because of the number of components and the specialised manufacturing that’s involved in developing rockets,” he said.
“Think of what Holdens meant to the state; they were developing hi-tech cars and we’re now talking about rockets.”
Air Vice-Marshall Catherine Roberts, an SA girl from Mount Gambier who is now head of Air Force Capability for Defence, says there are big opportunities for South Australian companies to secure work on multi-billion dollar space projects in the next ten years.
One key Defence project in the pipeline is building an up to $6.9 billion Australian-owned satellite network that will support the military, amid concerns other satellites could be jammed by adversaries.
Other projects are a mission control system for Defence to control and protect Australia’s crucial space assets and an up to $2 billion project to develop space surveillance capabilities, which includes sensors for monitoring where objects are and what is happening in space.
“Australian industry at the moment isn’t in a position to build really big, complex satellites that operate in geostationary orbit, but they can produce parts of them,” Air Vice-Marshall Roberts said.
Local companies could also build smaller satellites forlow-earth orbit which could be used in other Defence programs, such as satellite images for intelligence gathering.
A space surveillance capability which “underpins everything that we do in space” by monitoring where objects are is set to be developed in the next six years.
Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said: “Most Australians rely on space technology to power their everyday lives which is why it’s never been more important that Australia retains a technological edge.”
“This will ensure we can protect our national interests and our freedom to access space,” she said.
The Minister said there would be “numerous opportunities” for Australian defence companies and hi-tech jobs for Australians in acquiring and sustaining a new sovereign-owned and controlled satellite communications system.
Defence is also developing a Geospatial Information and Intelligence Program for intelligence gathering to “maintain awareness of Australia’s rapidly changing strategic environment”.
Originally published as First rocket launch at Southern Launch’s Koonibba test range in regional SA within months