Page 53 - Australian Defence Magazine November 2022

NOVEMBER 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
SPACE 53
for sub-orbital launches; the company’s Koonibba test range near Ceduna on the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula, and its Whalers Way orbital launch complex at the tip of the Peninsula, about 30 km from the regional centre of Port Lincoln.
The Whalers Way site includes more than six kilometres of ocean frontage and is intended to eventually provide turn- key access to high-inclination polar and sun-synchronous orbits. These orbits are ideal for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tasks because they orbit the earth from pole to pole, while the earth rotates from east to west.
“COMMERCIALLY, EQUATORIAL PROXIMITY PROVIDES AN ENERGY ADVANTAGE FROM THE EARTH’S ROTATION THAT TRANSLATES INTO LOWER COST PER KILOGRAM OF PAYLOAD”
bital rocket of Taiwanese company TiSpace caught fire on its Whalers Way launch pad.
“The attempted launch demonstrated from a technical perspective the roll-out and operation of Australia’s first civilian space launch infrastructure from radar and ra- dios to communications systems,” Southern Launch CEO Lloyd Damp told ADM.
“This was a civilian company demonstrat- ing its ability to meet stringent, strict inter- national standards across quite a few levels.”
TiSpace subsequently created ATSpace, a sister Australian company that is now manu- facturing in Adelaide the same experimental
Avoiding any delicate marine environments, rockets launched from the geographically-secure site will fly south- ward over the Great Australian Bight which has minimal air and maritime traffic, reducing range safety issues. Satellites launched from the complex can fly over the US mainland within 30 minutes of lift-off, and over Asia within 80 minutes.
Last September what was to have been Australia’s first commercial space launch in more than 50 years ended in anticlimax when the Hapith1 three-tonne two-stage sub-or-
rockets, renamed Kestrels, using an Australian supply chain. ASA approval for the sub-orbital launch of two of the 10.2-metre Kestrels from Whalers Way was received by ATSpace and Southern Launch in July and the first lift-off
is likely early in 2023.
Both vehicles will fly along sub-orbital trajectories to in-
crementally test the rocket design under different operating conditions. On the ground the collection of rocket launch noise data will contribute to the planned future operation of the Whalers Way launch complex.
GILMOUR SPACE TECHNOLOGIES