Page 40 - Australian Defence Magazine Nov 2020

40 SPACE LAUNCH
NOVEMBER 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
ELA CEO Carley Scott says environmental approvals are in place, 10 hectares of land have been cleared, and pour- ing the foundations for the launchpads, the payload inte- gration facility and the rocket motor storage facility will commence “very soon”.
Located at 12° south of the equator, the centre is per- fectly placed to deploy small satellites into equatorial low earth orbit (LEO) at latitudes between 15° south and north of the equator. Commercially, equatorial proximity maxi- mises payload capacity and minimises the use of fuel, thus generating maximum financial return.
“SCOTT DESCRIBES THE NASA DEAL AS THE “SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT TO DATE” FOR PUTTING THE AUSTRALIAN SPACE INDUSTRY ON THE GLOBAL MAP.”
The core infrastructure will be built to NASA standards to ensure the fitout is appropriate for cutting-edge interna- tional scientific experiments, Scott says. Spacecraft man- ufacturers, government and research groups, will be able to construct additional purpose-built facilities for ongoing and prioritised use of the launch facility.
Nearby infrastructure at Gove includes an airport, a deep- water port, a well-serviced township with accommodation, retail and hospital facilities, and fibreoptic cabling to support equipment and teams moving to the space centre.
Under a contract signed in 2019 NASA intends using the new facility to launch three (or possibly more) 15-metre sounding rockets, to conduct engineering tests and collect scientific data in suborbital space.
COVID-19 constraints have delayed the launches from the current year until at least mid-2021, but ELA has yet to receive launch approval from the ASA.
ELA says its NASA contract is at risk if the ASA doesn’t make approvals “efficiently”; the ASA’s Murfett says the onus is on ELA to comply with safety and regulatory requirements in order to receive approvals. However, Murfett also says that the ASA is committed to working with all applicants on their applications, and will be providing a once-off gap analysis the first time a company submits a complex application.
ABOVE: DEWC and Southern Launch and T-Minus Engineering had a successful launch.
This approach is intended to support applicants in meet- ing the requirements of the space legislation so an assess- ment can be undertaken.
Scott describes the NASA deal as the “single most impor- tant event to date” for putting the Australian space industry on the global map.
"The NASA contract needs to stay on track, it’s much more significant than just a NASA launch, it’s a real indica- tion of what they’re looking to do with us, and with other nations, in the space domain,” she explained to ADM.
‘When you’ve got the US State Department and NASA say- ing this contract is laying the foundation for smaller contracts internationally, we really need to be able to demonstrate that government has the capacity to come in with the appropriate actions to facilitate this contract and lay the foundation for enabling foreign space vehicles to launch in Australia
“We’re really pushing the ASA because we’re on a sched- ule with NASA. They need to ship quite a few million dol- lars worth of gear to our site so they want to see closure of the Space ASA’s decision-making process.”
QLD LAUNCH
Moves are also underway towards establishing Australia’s third space launch site at Abbot Point, about 25 km north of Bowen in Northern Queensland, with strong support from the state government, academia and industry.
Feasibility studies are underway, but concerns have been expressed about possible population risks, multiple risks to critical national infrastructure located around the site, negative social and economic effects from the exclusion of people, ships and aircraft from launch corridors, and the time likely to be taken to complete the mandatory environ- mental impact statement.
That said, Abbot Point’s location on the eastern seaboard, 20 deg south of the equator, means it is well-positioned to support both equatorial and polar orbit missions, and ben- efits from a dry sub-tropical climate, its proximity to MacK- ay, and extensive links to Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
Gold Coast-based Gilmour Space Technologies is antici- pating the inaugural launch in 2022 of its innovative Eris hybrid-propulsion rocket that will be used to put small sat- ellites and other payloads into low Earth orbits.
Using Abbot Point would allow the company to put a 305kg payload into an equatorial orbit, but it’s also plan- ning a potential launch outside Australia.
“It’s not our preferred choice; but for us to launch at home, we need a lot more assurance, from an operational and regulatory standpoint, that an appropriate launch site will be ready for us by 2022,” James Gilmour, the compa- ny’s chief operational officer and co-founder said to ADM.
In terms of regulating space activities, the ASA is the Commonwealth entity responsible for approving launch facilities, and for activities going 100 km above mean sea level or involving high power rockets, while CASA regulates activities below 100 km, and lower-power rocket activity.
“Our current focus is on ensuring the right regulatory environment to support issues of public safety; it’s really for the (launch) businesses to work out what is a commercial proposition for them,” the ASA’s Murfett told ADM.
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