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It's a pity we never really built upon the knowledge and experience gained from testing and firing rockets and satellites during the 50's and 60's at Woomera. The foundations were laid then, NASA even used the area during the Gemini space program and it was also the location of Deep Space Station 41 used for tracking NASA probes into space. All of which has long been dismantled and shipped back to the US.
Unforunately it was all pretty much left to waste by successive governments and with the space race slowing down and the cold war ending, you can't really blame them. All it gets used for thesedays is for research and testing by various countries who need somewhere to do it.
I guess what I'm saying is, as far as building facilities go, we have the foundations already in Woomera. But beyond that, we have a long way to catch up which means a lot of money and something I don't think we'll ever see in our life time.
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