AUSTRALIA SPACE
Northern Territory spaceport prepares for 2022 blast off
S
even NASA personnel are in the Northern Territory to
By MySecurity Media
prepare for a series of suborbital rocket launches in mid-2022 from the Arnhem Space Centre. The
launches will be the first NASA has undertaken from a commercial space centre outside the United States. Canberra-based start-up Equatorial Launch Australia was awarded a contract in 2019 to provide a temporary southern hemisphere site for NASA to launch scientific spaceflights. Equatorial Launch Australia CEO Carley Scott says the chance to team up with NASA is an incredible opportunity. “It positions the Arnhem Space Centre as a uniquely capable asset in the fast-growing global space sector.” Carrying scientific instruments to conduct astrophysics research, three sounding rockets will take off in 2022. The rockets will climb to an altitude of more than 200 kilometres.
22 | Australia in Space Magazine
The southern hemisphere launch site allows NASA scientists the chance to observe astronomical objects normally unseen on their usual northern hemisphere launches. “The science being carried out by these three telescope missions is critical to furthering our understanding of the atmosphere around other planets,” says NASA’s Sounding Rockets Program Office Operations Manager Scott Bissett. Situated on the Dhupuma Plateau near Nhulunbuy, some 700 kilometres east of Darwin, the Arnhem Space Centre is approximately 12° south of the Equator and on a 40-year lease from the land’s traditional owners. Ms Scott says the site’s proximity to the Equator but little else offers it unique advantages. She says the risk profile of the site is low. Aside from Nhulunbuy, the area is sparsely populated and remains largely undeveloped. The near-equatorial location makes it easier for rockets to move
