JIMBOOMBA has put itself front and centre of Australia’s infant space industry, with locals playing a major role in Australia’s first commercial rocket launch.
The Black Sky Aerospace launch in a paddock near Goondiwindi in south-west Queensland was the first funded entirely by the commercial sector.
The rocket, standing 5 metres high, carried three packages of high tech gear to be tested against heat and pressure in space launch conditions.
The cargo was was carried into low earth orbit.
State Development Minister Cameron Dick pushed the button, describing the launch as one giant step for Queensland.
“Black Sky Aerospace is proof Queensland can play a leading role in designing and manufacturing rocket and satellite technologies for projects like data collection for the communications, farming and mining industries,” he said.
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“We want to promote Queensland’s capabilities to national and international space industry markets and today’s test at what is Australia’s only commercial sub-orbital launch site right here in our backyard is a substantial step forward in achieving that aim.”
The rocket carried three cargoes for Hypersonix, the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research and Dekunu Technologies, to about 18,500 feet at speeds that reached 1.2 times the speed of sound.
Lift off took place before 120 people at a rural property near Westmar at 11.15am on Wednesday.
The launch puts Logan company Black Sky Aerospace, co-founder and Jimboomba resident Blake Nikolic at the centre of Queensland’s emerging space manufacturing industry.
Rocket scientists, space industry engineers, chemists, representatives from the Australian Space Centre, defence, the military and MPs were at the launch.
It included representatives from Equatorial Launch Australia which is on track to become the home of the first Australian launch into space.
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Mr Nikolic said the rocket and its pay load – including a packet of sweets – were recovered intact in good condition 1.8 kilometres from the launch site.
He said Black Sky had done what it set out to do – launch a rocket that could carry cargo and return to Earth to be recycled and reused.
“The biggest issue for us has been to make people believe this was possible,” he said.
“For us, that’s what today was all about. We’ve done what we set out to prove. It’s a baby step for what’s to come – launches that can take small satellites into space.”
