New launch date for Gilmour Space Technologies Eris rocket in Bowen

Weather, winds and final testing will determine whether the first Australian built rocket will make its historic launch from North Queensland in less than six days.

Gilmour Space could launch its Bowen rocket within the week.

The first ever Australian-built rocket could launch out of Bowen within a week.

Gilmour Space Technologies have announced a new ‘no earlier than’ date of July 2 for the launch of their Eris rocket after a pre-launch anomaly caused delays in May.

The company warned the date was highly dependent on weather, winds, and ongoing testing and could be postponed.

Gilmour Space has confirmed the payload fairing anomaly which caused issues during their last launch window was now sorted and testing was underway.

Investigations revealed an “unexpected power surge” caused issues on May 15 — not a cheeky cockatoo landing.

“The payload fairing system was triggered during vehicle shutdown by an unexpected power surge, caused by electrical backfeed from downstream devices,” they said.

James and Adam Gilmour, the co-founders of Queensland start-up Gilmour Space

They added that shutdowns were a normal part of launch operations and additional safeguards were being installed to prevent the anomaly from happening again.

Marketing and communications manager at Gilmour Space Technologies, Michelle Gilmour, warned there was no guarantee the rocket would achieve lift off during its test run with a range of factors playing a role.

“It could be an all-day affair; it could be a five-day affair. It could be a two-week affair,” Ms Gilmour said.

Mrs Gilmour said because of the unpredictable nature of first maiden runs spectators were not encouraged for TestFlight1.

Eris TestFlight1 will be the first Australian-made rocket capable of going into orbit and carry satellites, and the country’s first orbital launch in more than 50 years.

Mrs Gilmour said there were only about six or seven other countries launching their own rockets “so we should be one of only a very few number of nations that are capable or getting our own satellites to space”.

If the launch was successful they say it should be seen from many of the beaches around Bowen including Coral, Grays and Queens Beaches, Lions and Ethel Barker Parks, Yasso Point, Watertank Murals and Flagstaff Hill.

Originally published as New launch date for Gilmour Space Technologies Eris rocket in Bowen