Sky's The Limit For Spaceport Launch

By Paul Gellatly

One of the directors of the Bowen spaceport venture has jokingly promised "the largest party" the town has seen if its Eris rocket launch early next year makes it into orbit.

Adam Gilmour, CEO and co-founder of Gilmour Space with his brother James, told 50 attendees at the December meeting of Bowen Chamber of Commerce about progress towards the launch of their Southeast Queensland-built space vehicle.

With the company planning for an initial 12 rockets and 15 satellites, much is riding on the February/early March launch, although Mr Gilmour tried to hose down expectations of a faultless first launch.

"Every first rocket will fail," he said frankly, "and if it makes 10 seconds into its lift-off, we'd be happy," with a second launch being "a better prospect", and a third launch being the "big hope".

Mr Gilmour hailed Bowen's acceptance of the spaceport venture, which he said promised to make the town part of an exclusive club comprising 11 nations with a space launch capability.

"We've always felt very welcome in Bowen," he said, adding that Gilmour Space had never experienced a "not in my back yard" response from the town.

In fact, he said, a Bowen resident's query, "when do we launch", had been instrumental in securing a $60m venture capital raising, because backers "were incredulous that people in Bowen actually supported us".

Mr Gilmour said he believed that his company could make rockets cheaper, faster, and more economically than other suppliers, because all the complicated componentry could be made at the company's manufacturing facility at Helensvale, between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Support was received at community and local government levels in securing the spaceport facility near Abbot Point, which now has more than 100 staff, while at the federal level a visit to the manufacturing facility by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and deputy PM Richard Marles was elevated by their learning that all componentry was made in Australia.

The rocket has a two-metre diameter first-stage and a payload fairing of 1.5m, and it will carry a test satellite to be deployed if the rocket makes orbit.

Mr Gilmour promised a visceral launch experience for Bowen, with people in town still able to feel vibrations from the lift-off about 30km away. The lift-off could also have a tourism angle, with potentially 30,000 people expected to watch from a 5km barrier.

He said the Bowen launch site was chosen because its near-equatorial location gave a wider range of choices for orbits. Further north, the closeness to Papua New Guinea and islands presented regulatory problems.

"Bowen is not too remote to be able to handle launch problems.”

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From left, Gilmore Space founders James and Adam Gilmour with Bowen Chamber of Commerce president Bruce Hedditch. Photo credit: Paul Gellatly