Australia moves towards commercial spaceflight

Taiwanese company Tispace plans to launch three launches from South Australia this year. Australia hopes the event will provide a boost to the development of the Australian aviation industry. Australia’s first commercial rocket will be launched from the Whalers Way Orbital launch complex, on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia.

The Australian Federal Government has issued a permit for the Australian space company Southern Launch to launch the Taiwanese Hapith I rocket into space. A specific date will be determined in cooperation with the Australian Space Agency (ASA).

Superbital

Hapith, a ten-meter rocket, will follow a suborbital trajectory. The rocket will reach a height of at least 100 kilometers, but it will not be placed in Earth orbit. Hapith will drown in the sea upon his return to land. The launch should test the missile’s thrust, guidance and data collection systems.

Tespas stressed that two more suborbital missions and many more orbital flights will follow after the test launch. The company said it plans to launch three sub-orbital missiles from Wheelers Road before the end of this year.

If successful, Hapith rockets will eventually be used to launch satellites weighing up to 390 kg into low Earth orbit at altitudes of up to 700 km.

Alice Gorman, Professor of Space History at Flinders University, emphasized that the announcement represented a very important step for Australia’s commercial space industry.

The scientist argued that it would eventually be possible to launch satellites from Australia into geostationary orbit, which would require a launch site near the equator. But the polar path, in which satellites pass over the North Pole and Antarctica of the Earth, is also possible from Australia.

long history

Gorman also noted that Australia can provide an important service to other countries in the region that wish to develop their space programmes.

“Australia has a long history of space travel,” Gorman said. The country has already participated in the beginning of space travel, right after World War II. Rockets have been launched around the clock for decades at the Woomera launch site in South Australia. “

Tispace, Taiwan’s first private space company, initially planned to test Hapith locally, but is said to have struggled to get approval to build a Taiwanese launch site.

(EVB)