NASA launches rocket in Australia in ‘landmark’ first

Around 100 VIPs gathered overnight in a remote part of Australia to watch an Australian-first rocket launch light up the desert sky.

In a first for Australia, US space agency NASA launched a commercial rocket from a remote area of the Northern Territory on Sunday night.

The rocket launched from the Arnhem Space Centre near Nhulunbuy, on the lands of the Gumatj people who were consulted throughout the process. Weather conditions delayed the launch for about an hour as wind, rain and clouds arrived at the launch site.

“We had a few delays because of the weather but when it finally went you feel the shock of the rocket as it left and the noise was pretty impressive,” Arnhem Space Centre chief executive Michael Jones told the Today show on Monday morning.

“We went through the full weather spectrum. It puts some risk into what the launch angles will be, so we just had to make sure it was safe.”

NASA launched a rocket from the Arnhem Space Centre in the Northern Territory early on Monday.

The rocket finally launched from the red dirt just after midnight on Monday, but was only visible for ten seconds before it disappeared into the earth’s atmosphere.

Around 100 VIPs watched the historic moment from a viewing platform 800 metres away including scientists, politicians, local community members, indigenous leaders and the media.

It is a 13m “sounding rocket” that carried an atmospheric observation platform to examine the Alpha A and B constellations. The rocket is expected to travel 300 km during the 15 minutes it moves through space.

“Without getting too deep into the science, it was effectively a large X-ray camera looking at various astrological phenomenon and trying to capture parts of boulders in the Milky Way and particularly the star cluster of Alpha Centauri,” Mr Jones said.

It was the first time the internationally renowned space agency has launched a rocket from a commercial port outside the USA.

NASA has installed telemetry equipment to facilitate the launch. Picture: Amanda Parkinson

The rocket is also the first to leave Australian soil in 26 years, since the 1995 launches from the Royal Australian Air Force Woomera Range Complex.

Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles called it “a landmark occasion for the Top End”.

“NASA is adding capacity and rocketing East Arnhem Land into the global spotlight for investors — this will help our industry grow, create more jobs for locals and more opportunities for businesses to expand,” she said.

The rocket is the first of three NASA-designed rockets to be launched from the remote NT space centre that will not enter orbit. Instead, the rockets will collect valuable scientific information pertaining to the physics of the Sun, astrophysics, and the type of planetary science which can only be conducted in the southern hemisphere.

The second and third rockets are scheduled to launch on July 4 and 12.

In a joint announcement between the NT government and the federal government, the rocket launches were praised as a watershed moment for the Australian space industry.

NASA launch pads can be seen in the Arnhem Space Centre.

“This project will bring together global and local industry to take Australia’s space sector into a new era,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

Both governments hope the collaboration with NASA will encourage future joint scientific endeavours between Australia and the USA.

Australian Space Agency head Enrico Palermo said the launch was a significant milestone in the growth of domestic space activities.

“This is another signal that Australia is go for launch — and will further cement our reputation as a nation that global space players want to do business with,” he said.

The launches mark a historic collaboration between some of the world’s foremost scientists and the world’s oldest living continuous culture.

The launch pad is on traditional land, which NASA has pledged to clean up after the launch by returning all the material and debris back to the US.

The Arnhem Space Centre is owned and operated by Equatorial Launch Australia, which hopes to drastically increase its capability to host 50 launches a year by 2024.

The Arnhem Space Centre site is 31 km outside Nhulunbuy. Picture: ELA

Mr Jones said the site’s geographic location and proximity to the equator would attract international space agencies.

“Our proximity to the equator being 12 degrees south gives us an astrodynamic and physics advantage over a lot of launch sites around the world and is highly desirable for large and complex orbital solutions in space,” he told SKY News.

Originally published as NASA launches rocket in Australia in ‘landmark’ first