Aussie Space Company to Launch this week

[Startrek]

Gilmore Space Technologies will be attempting the first launch of their Eris 3 stage orbital rocket as early as Thursday this week from the Bowen launch complex in Queensland.

https://www.afr.com/technology/countdown-on-for-australia-s-first-home-grown-rocket-launch-20250503-p5lw7i

It’s great to see an Aussie company try to compete in the space industry across the globe.

If they can get this rocket off the pad and reach some decent altitude I think they can give themselves a big pat on the back. Reaching orbit is a remote chance but anything can happen in this risky business.

Good Luck !!

Martin

[Stefan Buda]

I'm a bit sceptical about this company. I've been watching them for years and they seem to be good at signing various agreements and making big promises but they have not shown any convincing technological developments. Why on earth use hybrid engines for an orbital launch? As far as I understand the only advantage is simplicity but that comes at the cost of combining the worst characteristics of solid and liquid fuel engines.

[Peter Ward]

I agree with Stefan on this.

Across the pond (Noo Zuland :) )they have put several payloads into orbit using home grown...well with the help of Monash Uni Aero-Engineering grads from Oz who couldn't use their skills here...anyway I digrress...using home grown 3D printed rocket engines.

Very clever stuff!

Meanwhile back in Oz....we have a Space bureaucracy with no actual launch capability....:rolleyes:

[Startrek]

Hybrids obviously still have to be proven over time ( cost , reliability and performance ) just like Methalox has with the Space X Raptor.

All space agencies/ companies both government and private across the globe have experienced RUD’s as part of iterative development and testing and GST is no different. As I mentioned if they can get this thing off the launch pad and reach some altitude then this may stir some interest outside our country.

We need global interest which could lead to investment !!

[Peter Ward]

Have to say one might need a Musk style purge of the Australian Space Agency...of whom I've been doing a little poking about to see what they have achieved with their $2 BILLION budget to date.

First up, Zero launch capability so far.

Another pearler is allocating:
"$65.7 million over five years from 2021–22 to set the conditions for rocket launches from Australia and fast track the launch of space assets"

Now to give this some perspective, the Kiwi's (bless 'em) have got the cost
of their Neutron heavy lift vehicle (circa 15,000kg) down to $50 million and are undercutting Space X (the space-Uber service preferred by ASA) significantly.

Meanwhile the seagulls (a term of endearment about admin pilots from my flying days: they'll only fly if you throw rocks at them) at ASA are pondering
the "conditions for rocket launches"

Sorry...getting a little worked up: need to have "Bex and a lie down"
(younger readers might need to Google that :) )

[Startrek]

My dear mother use to take “Vincent’s with confidence” during the 60’s and little did they know what harm this white powder did to your long term health.
Anyway ……,
Yep totally agree our Government hasn’t taken future Space technology seriously with those sorts of budgets and with the northern half of our country ideal for “space ports” not to mention natural resources at hand, we are watching the rest of the world pass us by.

We need visionaries and bold decision makers to take advantage of this growing industry and technology.

Rant over……..

[Peter Ward]

Regardless of my thoughts about the ASA, only two more sleeps before Gilmore's ERIS launch...to orbit no less.

My hope is it goes well....at least they are having a crack.

[OzEclipse]

Hi Peter,
"a Space bureaucracy with no actual launch capability," isn't that the same as NASA?
:rofl::rofl::rofl:
Joe

[Peter Ward]

Very droll.....but they do put stuff up there on a regular basis ;)

https://www.nasa.gov/smallsat-institute/recent-nasa-launches/

[astronobob]

Well, they attempted launch but scrubbed due to electrical start-up procedures,
Attempting again tomorrow?

[Startrek]

Yep , I’ve never seen a launch of a new vehicle without a scrub or two

Hope weather is favourable tomorrow ?

[TrevorW]

We had launch facilities in the 60-70's but our Govt saw no future in space technology - no visionaries in Govt and there are still none - they want to buy nuclear subs but hell what's the point in that if we don't have nuclear missiles - Australia's decision to forgo a nuclear deterrent reflects a combination of international obligations, strategic priorities, and supposedly public opinion that favours non-proliferation and conventional military capabilities, but what good is that when you have someone like Trump in power who treats friends like enemies. We as a nation should be way ahead of numerous other poorer less stable countries but we are not.

[astronobob]

This is a copy & Paste from SPACE DAILY :

"After securing approval from the Australian Space Agency, takeoff is expected within a multi-day window starting on Thursday, weather permitting, chief executive Adam Gilmour told AFP on Wednesday.

But he's not setting his hopes too high for now

If it actually orbits Earth "I would probably have a heart attack, actually, because I'll be so surprised, but deliriously happy", Gilmour said.

"Look, we're going to be happy if it gets off the pad -- 10, 20, 30 seconds of flight time: fantastic. So orbit is just not in the realm of my belief right now, even though it's theoretically possible."

The 23-metre vehicle -- designed to launch small satellites into low-Earth orbit -- is being prepared for takeoff from Abbot Point, about 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) up from the Queensland capital Brisbane.

Weighing 30 tonnes fully fuelled, it relies on a "fairly unique" hybrid propulsion system, using a solid inert fuel and a liquid oxidiser, which provides the oxygen for it to burn, Gilmour said.

The payload for the test flight is a jar of Vegemite -- a popular Australian toast topping -- but the rocket design is for a capacity of 100-200 kilogrammes (220-440 pounds), with further upgrades being developed.
---------------

Gilmour received final approvals for launch from the Australian Space Agency and CASA last week and now has a lift-off window from 7.30am AEST through to Sunday

[Startrek]

Launch of Eris rocket scrubbed today due to an electrical fault to the nose cone faring…….,

https://spaceanddefense.io/gilmour-space-scrubs-eris-launch-for-second-day-in-a-row/

Frustrating but quite normal for any initial test flight !

[AstroViking]

I hope they realise that Eris was the Greek goddess of chaos and discord...

[Peter Ward]

I read the following today:
"Gilmour has previously pointed out that it took Elon Musk four attempts to launch the Falcon 9 rocket successfully, and Musk is now experiencing a similar sequence of unsuccessful initial Starship launches"

Interestingly, the Von Braun rocket team had no significant failures with the Saturn V program over a half century ago....in fact their record at NASA was almost faultless.

The take-away may be Gilmour and Musk are clearly not "Rocket Scientists" ;)

P.S.
I admit to setting my Mum's hedge on fire with my home built zinc-dust and sulphur powered rocket in the 1970's. It looked pretty cool until it arced into
the hedge. :lol:

[TrevorW]

It amazes me that they are taking so long to get back to the moon 50 years later with better technology, did NASA forget things :)

[Startrek]

My thoughts…….,

The Saturn 5 was a ridiculously expensive expendable launch system to get humans to the moon within 10 years. Totally government funded endeavour ( NASA )

Starship will eventually be a totally reusable launch system to get humans to Moon , Mars and beyond. It might take until 2035/2040 to get humans to Mars ( if this is at all possible) Private company using its own funds irrespective of whether NASA is one of its customers.

The Apollo CSM with LM in tow carrying 3 astronauts to moon and the Starship with possibly up to 100 astronauts to Moon , Mars and beyond is like comparing an E scooter to a B double truck.

Thrust of Saturn 5 at launch around 7.5 million pounds
Thrust of Starship Booster at launch in its final version 3 configuration around 21 million pounds of thrust

The Saturn 5 was affectionately called the old man’s rocket as it was so inefficient and slow off the pad and slow to get to LEO consuming ridiculous mind boggling amounts of fuel.

Starship in comparison with its efficiency and thrust to weight ratio is bigger more powerful and orders of magnitude cheaper to get to LEO. Musk is talking about a cost per Starship launch of only $2 million dollars once the system is fully reusable.

The technology required today used by Space X in regard to total re usability is new technology. The goals are new goals and the launch vehicle and hardware is new and unproven. Blowing up rockets is all
part of their iterative approach to design development and qualification testing.

Why haven’t we been back to the Moon in 50 years ?

I suppose we’ve been there 6 times already and no one in private industry from 1975 to 2001 ( until Mr Musk arrived on the scene ) had the vision and money to invest in such a monumental endeavour and leap forward for humanity.
Governments ( NASA ) these days are reticent to the risks of human space travel, the days of Apollo are well and truly over.

It’s a new vision for a new frontier with so many unknowns to be resolved along the way.
I hope I’m still around to see at least an unmanned Starship orbit Mars and return to Earth.
Who knows ?

Martin

[DarkArts]

Actually, yes. There was a significant loss of working-level expertise in manned spaceflight between the Shuttle program and Artemis. Space agencies need to grow expertise incrementally. It'll be a few years yet before the space industry is large enough that there'll be significant mobility in experienced staff, IMHO.

Add to that the difference in funding profiles. Artemis is (was) a smaller share of a relatively smaller NASA budget. NASA's budget during Apollo peaked at 4.4% of all US Govt spending; today's total NASA budget is around 0.5%. Also, the Artemis budget is spread out more over time. The relative lower cost per launch (Artemis vs Apollo), sadly, won't be realised as the program has been cut short, including cancellation of lunar gateway.

Speaking of per-launch costs, private space flight isn't cheap but Starship costs are slated to be much lower because of design approaches and re-usability (though Artemis and Starship have different profiles and risks). Still, Starship isn't a success, yet.

With cancellation of Artemis after flight III, and lunar gateway, and pending retirement of the ISS, NASA risks losing the remainder of its internal expertise in manned space vehicles and may rely completely on industry. It seems as though NASA will entrench "forgetting things".

Edit:
I didn't see Martin's reply before posting.


I thought I read the per-launch target cost was US$50m? That's a lot cheaper than Artemis at $4.1 billion, though.

[Startrek]

Musks future estimates once fully reusable and a continuous launch cadence was around $2 million per launch. Probably $50m each until they reach full launch cadence. He’s talking about sending 1000 ships to Mars ??? Hmm ….

[Leo.G]

Maybe the moon, I recently read an article where travelling further could be problematic due to kidney failure. I'll see if I can find the article, both an interesting and depressing read for those hoping to see Mars reachable within our lifetimes.

[TrevorW]

Mars is a pipe dream, most scientists agree that other planets within our system are better suited to terraforming :)

[Leo.G]

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2024/jun/would-astronauts-kidneys-survive-roundtrip-mars

[Peter Ward]

Musk is very much an opportunist. Space X have had to invent very little which this gleaning off the net neatly summarises....

"NASA essentially had to invent the space program as we know today. Everything like the deep space network, communications, practical ways of doing the orbital maneuvers, handling cryogenic propellants, building large rocket engines and handling combustion instability, handling PoGo oscillations and all the challenges of building a super-heavy lift rocket - and all of this with little to no previous practical knowledge of the technical challenges posed by Space travel, and all of this done with slide rules and slow, primitive computers"

Yet, with all these lessons already learnt Space X still blow stuff up. :shrug:

[Startrek]

I totally concur with all the above as most of today’s industry and technology was built from the pioneers of the past. My Aunt in the US worked for Rocketdyne ( 1968 to 1978 ) as a Secretary to one of many managers in production. She often sent me Apollo merchandise, a great time in history.

At least Musk has a vision and purpose not like his Amazon counterpart sending up the rich and famous for a flea hop. Smilin Al would turn in his grave if he knew about this mockery of the past and present astronaut corp.

I forgot to point out that Musk has launched nearly 500 Falcon 9 missions ( both crewed and un crewed supply and science missions ) with only 3 failures. Falcon 9 is not a small rocket ( thrust nearly 2 million pounds) and is 70% reusable. It can land anywhere land or sea.

[Stefan Buda]

I was looking forward to tomorrow morning's launch attempt but the launch crew got tired and they decided to postpone again.

[Startrek]

Actually bad weather ( wind ) caused the scrub due to the tail end of that east coast low which pushed down the NSW coast yesterday.
Hopefully they get another launch window later this week

[Stefan Buda]

This is from their website:

"We’ve made the tough call to postpone this week’s launch… to give us a longer, more flexible launch window for our first test flight, and our team a chance to rest after an intense few weeks of testing and prep."

They don't mention the weather. The forecast for tomorrow is sunny with light winds.

[astronobob]

Ready to try again in 10-11 days

[pmrid]

I know how complex this first flight must be for those behind it. But the repeated delays and postponements do leave me with a sense of unease. I can't put a name to it. Just a lingering doubt.

I wish it were not so but there it is.

[Peter Ward]

Like Earth?

(One wonders when the Hoi Poli will finally link burning fossil fuels to climate change...and finally change governments that pander to this madness)

[astronobob]

Possibility for the weekend, Sunday 27th ?

Last Scrub due to strong Jet-Stream, and current forecasts also have strong Jet-Stream nearby this Sunday 27th with 175km/h at Bowen,,, :shrug:

https://x.com/GilmourSpace (https://x.com/GilmourSpace)

[Stefan Buda]

Apparently the launch window opened about half an hour ago but they don't want us to see what is happening. Didin't they get some of our tax money?

[Startrek]

Here’s live feed from a guy who has a camera and zoom lens set up a couple of kilometres from the launch pad

Launch now scheduled for 3.53pm

Hope they get the green light !!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgXkXSFX0Dg

[Stefan Buda]

Thanks for the link Martin. I was hoping someone would do a live feed.

[Startrek]

Launch scrubbed due to high level winds

Next launch attempt is tomorrow

Aussienaut will set up his camera and live feed again

[Startrek]

Just watched the Eris rocket lift off , rise up to around 50m , drift sideways , fall and blow up.
They have some work to do , back to the drawing board

I’m no rocket engineer but initial observation was that power weight ratio severely compromised by lack of thrust, plus compromised thrust vector control.The exhaust plume didn’t seem enough at lift off for the specs on the rocket, even from a few kilometres away.

Comments

[Stefan Buda]

I think those pathetic engines lasted only a few seconds.

If they survive financially, we may see another attempt in a few years, hopefully using proper rocket engines, solid or liquid fueled, not hybrid. But that will take a lot of money.

[doppler]

Something not right with the engine but they seemed to have control of the rocket right to the end and maybe moved it away from the tower to save a bit of infrastructure.

[TrevorW]

Lets get some help from the US and NZ-


Rocket Lab's Electron rocket has demonstrated a strong success rate, particularly in recent years. While early launches had some failures, Rocket Lab has achieved a 100% mission success rate in 2024 and the first quarter of 2025. This consistency, along with rapid turnaround times, has positioned Electron as a leading small satellite launch vehicle.
Here's a more detailed look:

Overall Electron Success:
The Electron rocket has flown 68 times, with 64 successful launches and 4 failures.

Recent Success:
Rocket Lab completed a record launch turnaround in June 2025, launching two missions in under 48 hours from the same launch site, and achieved a 100% success rate for the year.
100% Success Rate in 2024:
Rocket Lab achieved a 100% mission success rate for all 16 Electron launches in 2024.
Continued Success in 2025:
This success continued into the first quarter of 2025, with a 100% mission success rate, including three launches in 13 days

[Peter Ward]

Yep.

Reads a bit like a Bledisloe Cup score count. NZ 64 AUS nil

The vision of launch was rather disappointing....looked like they were behind a tree line miles away. Hopefully they had multiple cameras in situ plus telemetry to know where it all went wrong....

[Startrek]

I’d like to gives these Gilmore brothers a wrap , at least they are having a crack
Today’s failure was half expected

This hybrid technology has a long way to go to be reliable and cost effective and provide the performance required to hit orbit each time.

They’ve only been in serious rocket development for the past 9 years or so where’s the Kiwis at Rocketlab have been in development for nearly 20 years with substantially more capital behind them.

The next 2 or 3 years could be make or break for Gilmore as money and support dries up quickly.

[Stefan Buda]

Ok, but why the silly secrecy? They don't inspire confidence.
Rocketlab had shown off some serious tech development long before their first launch attempt.
One has to ask the question why hybrid, when no one else launched anything to orbit using such engines. No need to be an engineer to think that maybe there is good reason for that.
Nine years of rocket development? How do we know? All they have shown us are two engine firings, one of which ended in an explosion and the other one, a biprop engine that didn't seem to produce Mach diamonds, the burn looked so instable.

[pmrid]

To be fair, even RocketLab's early launches were fizzers. Similarly with SpaceX. I think even Blue Horzon, and the JSA and Indian rocket developments were initial fails.

[Stefan Buda]

I don't think it is fair to compare Eris to the Electron rocket. The Electron is propelled by innovative high tech engines while Eris was not. The first launch of Electron almost reached orbit when telemetry was lost.

My guess is that the Gilmore brothers made a mistake thinking that they can reach orbit on a shoestring budget. Sad because I can't see how they can recover from this.

[SB]

I watched the launch from Bowen. Heartbreaking to watch the crash due to an engine failure. Incredible noise on take off and of course the shockwave on crash!

Good on Gilmour Space for giving it a go. Learn and go again. It’s entrepreneurs like Gilmour Space that can help this country get ahead.

Chris

[DarkArts]

Definitely an Aussie rocket: couldn't wait to lay down on the job. :P



I'd rather keep as much of the intellectual property in Australia as possible. Space could end up being as restricted as Defence with respect to IP transfer.



The hybrid motor concept may be old but it has advantages, including lower costs and fewer hazards. That sounds like a good place to start even if the company changes direction later. Give them time, though. I'm happy for them to focus on keeping costs down.

Apologies for stating the bleeding obvious, but the space industry is going to be huge. It's starting to go through a massive growth phase but will eventually become a game of margins like air travel today, though with elements like tailored service, sovereign control and responsiveness also potentially being important, especially in regard to national security.

Anyway, that's my 2c worth. :shrug:

[Startrek]

Scott Manley posted an excellent preliminary review of the launch with plenty of positive feedback for Gilmore Space.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98haEggTw4A&pp=ugUEEgJlbg%3D%3D

[TrevorW]

NZ space agency was founded two years ahead of Australia’s, our Govt gave Gilmore $5million, maybe a bit more financial aid would help :)