NASA has taken a trip down under.
The space agency announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with the privately owned spaceport Equatorial Launch Australia to launch three suborbital sounding rockets in June and July from the company’s spaceport in the Outback. NASA will use these rockets to conduct astrophysics experiments from a different perspective.
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“This commercial launch range in Australia opens up new access to the Southern Hemisphere’s night sky, expanding the possibilities for future science missions,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, in a press release.
“We’re excited to be able to launch important science missions from the Southern Hemisphere and see targets that we can’t from the United States,” said Nicky Fox, director for NASA’s Heliophysics Division. “The launches this summer will allow us to explore how a star’s light can influence a planet’s habitability, among other things.”
Two of the three rockets will specifically focus on two planets orbiting Alpha Centauri, one of the closest stars to the sun. The third rocket will study X-rays emanating from the clouds of gas and debris that lingers in the space between stars.
The three unmanned rockets will launch between June 26 and July 12 while carrying instruments for data collection into the atmosphere. These launches will be the first sent up by ELA’s Arnhem Space Center, based in Dhupuma Plateau near Nhulunbuy, on the lands of the Yolngu people.
“We are excited and proud that our Arnhem Space Centre will be the first spaceport in Australia to conduct a commercial space launch,” said Michael Jones, ELA executive chairman and group CEO.
Australian leaders had good things to say about the launch. “This project will bring together global and local industry to take Australia’s space sector into a new era,” said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
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“We’ve been working hard since 2015 to build the ASC to make ELA the preeminent multiuser commercial space launch company in the world,” Jones said. “Having NASA as our first customer will allow us to prove the capabilities of ELA and the ASC as well as the benefits of launching near the equator. It will mean that over the next five years, the ASC will ramp up to be capable of launching more than 100 launches a year.”
NASA last launched rockets from Australia in 1995 when it sent multiple rockets into orbit from the military-operated Royal Australian Air Force Woomera Range Complex.
