Australia's Space Launch Opportunities

[glend (Glen)]

As we have seen in NZ 's Rocket Lab success, there are space launch opportunities and customers, that are looking for cost effective facilities. Why is Australia not ion this space. Elon Musk is on record as saying SpaceX is looking for near equatorial launch locations, and are talking to Indonesia about island based facilities there.
The recent problems SpaceX has encountered with the Starship test launch approvals in the USA from the FAA, demonstrate a potential strategic advantage that competitors world wide could exploit. Being able to fast track launch activity, is going to be essential for commercial suborbital flights, and turn around, and Mars cargo flights are going to require multiple Starship launches within a very short launch window. Australia has time to build a Northern Territory launch facility prior to the Mars cargo flight launch window, and cement a long term role as a space facility.
Why are we not chasing this opportunity?

[Rerouter (Ryan)]

I would say location, and transport, pretty much you can treat any angle a rocket is launched from can have any combination of a rocket crashing to various parts flying off and crashing on it, this cuts down the angles that the rocket can be launched at, limiting the orbits it can reach.

You also have transportation issues, ideally you want your launch site accessible by ship to directly ship them, alternatively you need serious road infrastructure to support it.

If you take into consideration of launch angles, the northern territory as a whole has almost no launch angles that wont intersect another country or fly over a populated area somewhere on its path before it reaches orbit, as a quick look, near port maquarie in NSW or Mackay in QLD kind of ends up in the right place for it,

[glend (Glen)]

Hmmm...Sea launch platform perhaps.

[Rerouter (Ryan)]

Then that limits the types, falcons are 330-1400 tons, with a thrust of up to 1700 tons, those are crazy static and dynamic loads

Empty boosters can land on barges no issue, but not launch from them without needing something built like an off shore mining platform.

I would say it should stick to land, near an existing port, it might actually be best to hijack the depleting mining support trades to do the fitout and maintainance, they handle large scale fabrication already, with lots of machining skill, so would be easy to pivot them without competition.

[glend (Glen)]

Originally Posted by Rerouter

Then that limits the types, falcons are 330-1400 tons, with a thrust of up to 1700 tons, those are crazy static and dynamic loads

Empty boosters can land on barges no issue, but not launch from them without needing something built like an off shore mining platform.

I would say it should stick to land, near an existing port, it might actually be best to hijack the depleting mining support trades to do the fitout and maintainance, they handle large scale fabrication already, with lots of machining skill, so would be easy to pivot them without competition.

SpaceX owns two offshore oil rigs which are being modified for Starship Sea Launch Platforms ( that is booster and Starship stacks).

[Startrek (Martin)]

Last established launch facility in Australia was the Woomera rocket range in the late 50’s and 60’s mostly controlled by the British
I think during the Keating government there was a feasibility study done on Cape York by the Australian government and local scientists in collaboration with NASA but nothing came of it , it was going to be called “The Cape York Space Port or “Cape York Space Facility”
It’s got me stuffed why we don’t invest more in Space technology, we have all the natural resources and geographic location , just need the investment and technical personnel / manpower
Way of the future for this country IMHO

[Hemi]

I’ve been in the NT for 14 years. There’s been intermittent talk over the years that’s gotten me excited for nothing to eventuate. The chatter has increased quite dramatically of late.

https://theterritory.com.au/invest/i...space-industry

But to put the general interest (or depressing lack of) into focus:

We have no university programs or academic interest
There are no professional (academic or otherwise) observatories
There are no amateur Astro societies/interest groups.




But still, here’s hoping!

[forrestwhite (Forrest White)]

Australia has an excellent geographic location in terms of launching cargo into space, because its northern region is close enough to the equator. Only the Kuru cosmodrome, located in French Guiana (5 degrees north latitude) - the main launch site of the European Space Agency - and the Brazilian Alcantara cosmodrome (2 degrees south latitude), which ceased to function after a devastating accident in 2003, are closer to equator