Page 52 - Australian Defence Mag Jul-Aug 2020

52 DEFENCE BUSINESS VIEW FROM CANBERRA
JULY/AUGUST 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
LEFT: Is Australia finally ready for it’s own space launch capability?
LOCAL LAUNCH
FOR AUSTRALIA
Only now is Australia approaching a space launch capability and a Commonwealth-backed space base might have got us there maybe two decades sooner.
A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT | CANBERRA
BACK in October 1987, then Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke- Petersen ventured to Canberra and put a proposal to De- fence Minister Kim Beazley – how about incorporating a space port into the new RAAF base planned for Cape York.
The year before, Joh, ever one for grand infrastructure projects, had announced his vision for a commercial space port up north, a vision promptly dismissed by many as your typical Joh pie-in-the-sky but one which actually possessed substantial merit.
Geographically, far north Queensland is a good place to launch satellites. Proximity to the equator means rocket launches can take full advantage of the Earth’s rotation, meaning larger payloads for less fuel. Launches east would not be overflying any near neighbours.
Plus there was a growing demand for launches, a very ex-
pensive business then dominated by national governments, especially the superpowers.
IDEA GENESIS
The idea initially came from Hawker De Havilland engineer Stan Schaetzel (1924-2015) who no doubt appreciated that Australia actually possessed vast space expertise from par- ticipating in other people’s programs in the 1950s through to the 1970s.
That expertise had been steadily squandered through in- action of successive governments who apparently took the view that space was for superpowers with vast budget.
Despite the initial scepticism, various reviews found much for and little against Joh’s spaceport and it eventually gained backing of the federal Labor government and the new Queensland Labor government after Joh was booted.
Precisely what Joh had in mind when he approached Beaz- ley isn’t known. Quite what Beazley replied isn’t known.
Whatever was said, Labor was most unlikely to jump aboard this one. Joh long for public life, departing in Novem- ber 1987 in a miasma of rancour and corruption.
Ultimately, Joh’s project foundered. It’s not clear what was more fatal – the reluctance of backers to stump up $500 million or a successful High Court challenge by indigenous landholders.
Certainly, Commonwealth involvement through hosting the facility on what was to be RAAF Scherger would have given the scheme a substantial leg-up.
Space is a very big deal for Australia and for Defence which is seeking to develop sovereign national capability for surveillance, communications and positioning systems, all capabilities now mostly delivered through other people’s as- sets, especially the US.
ROCKETLAB