System glitch delays Australian-made rocket launch
Gilmour Space Technologies said a ground system glitch forced it to postpone the first test launch of its three-stage Eris rocket by a day until Friday.
"The issue was with an external power system we use during system checks," communications chief Michelle Gilmour told AFP.
"We've identified the fix but ran out of time to implement it and fuel the rocket within today's launch window."
The rocket has a multi-day launch window to fly from a spaceport near the east coast township of Bowen, about 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) up from the Queensland capital Brisbane.
If successful, it would be the first Australian-made rocket to make an orbital launch from Australian soil.
The 23-metre (75-foot) vehicle is designed to launch small satellites into low-Earth orbit but on the first launch it will carry a jar of Vegemite -- a popular Australian toast topping.
Chief executive Adam Gilmour said the firm is not expecting things to go smoothly on the first test.
If it orbits Earth "I would probably have a heart attack, actually, because I'll be so surprised, but deliriously happy", Gilmour told AFP this week.
"We're going to be happy if it gets off the pad -- 10, 20, 30 seconds of flight time: fantastic. So orbit is just not in the realm of my belief right now, even though it's theoretically possible."
The rocket design is for a capacity of 100-200 kilogrammes (220-440 pounds), with further upgrades being developed.
Weighing 30 tonnes fully fuelled, it has a hybrid propulsion system, using a solid inert fuel and a liquid oxidiser, which provides the oxygen for it to burn, Gilmour said.
Gilmour Space Technologies is backed by private investors including venture capital group Blackbird and pension fund HESTA.
The company, which has 230 employees, hopes to start commercial launches in late 2026 or early 2027, Gilmour said, and then to rapidly grow revenues.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
LeMonde
3 hours ago
- LeMonde
Trump says he's focusing on Russia, China, Iran and 'not thinking about Elon Musk': 'I just wish him well'
US President Donald Trump said Friday, June 6, that Elon Musk had "lost his mind" but insisted he wanted to move on from the fiery split with his billionaire former ally. The blistering public break-up between the world's richest person and the world's most powerful is fraught with political and economic risks all around. Trump had scrapped the idea of a call with Musk and was even thinking of ditching the red Tesla he bought at the height of their bromance, White House officials told AFP. "Honestly I've been so busy working on China, working on Russia, working on Iran... I'm not thinking about Elon Musk, I just wish him well," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to his New Jersey golf club late Friday. Earlier, Trump told US broadcasters that he now wanted to focus instead on passing his "big, beautiful" mega-bill before Congress – Musk's harsh criticism of which had sparked their break-up. But the 78-year-old Republican could not stop himself from taking aim at his South African-born friend-turned-enemy. "You mean the man who has lost his mind?" Trump said in a call with ABC when asked about Musk, adding that he was "not particularly" interested in talking to the tycoon. Trump later told Fox News that Musk had "lost it." Just a week ago Trump gave Musk a glowing send-off as he left his cost-cutting role at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after four months working there. 'Very disappointed' While there had been reports of tensions, the sheer speed at which their relationship imploded stunned Washington. After Musk called Trump's spending bill an "abomination" on Tuesday, Trump hit back in an Oval Office diatribe on Thursday in which he said he was "very disappointed" by the entrepreneur. Trump's spending bill faces a difficult path through Congress as it will raise the US deficit, while critics say it will cut health care for millions of the poorest Americans. The row then went nuclear, with Musk slinging insults at Trump and accusing him without evidence of being in government files on disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump hit back with the power of the US government behind him, saying he could cancel the SpaceX boss's multi-billion-dollar rocket and satellite contracts. Trump struck a milder tone late Friday when asked how seriously he is considering cutting Musk's contracts. "It's a lot of money, it's a lot of subsidy, so we'll take a look – only if it's fair. Only if it's to be fair for him and the country," he said. Musk apparently also tried to de-escalate social media hostilities. The right-wing tech baron rowed back on a threat to scrap his company's Dragon spacecraft – vital for ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station. And on Friday, the usually garrulous poster kept a low social media profile on his X social network. But the White House denied reports that they would talk. "The president does not intend to speak to Musk today," a senior White House official told AFP. A second official said Musk had requested a call. Tesla giveaway? Tesla stocks tanked more than 14% on Thursday amid the row, losing some $100 billion of the company's market value, but recovered partly on Friday. Trump is now considering either selling or giving away the cherry red Tesla S that he announced he had bought from Musk's firm in March. The electric vehicle was still parked on the White House grounds on Friday. "He's thinking about it, yes," a senior White House official told AFP when asked if Trump would sell or give it away. Trump and Musk had posed inside the car at a bizarre event in March, when the president turned the White House into a pop-up Tesla showroom after viral protests against Musk's DOGE role. But while Trump appeared to hold many of the cards, Musk also has some to play. His wealth allowed him to be the biggest donor to Trump's 2024 campaign, to the tune of nearly $300 million. Any further support for the 2026 midterm election now appears in doubt –while Musk could also use his money to undermine Trump's support on the right.
AFP
9 hours ago
- AFP
AI-generated Pope sermons flood YouTube, TikTok
An AFP investigation identified dozens of YouTube and TikTok pages that have been churning out AI-generated messages delivered in the pope's voice or otherwise attributed to him since he took charge of the Catholic Church last month. The hundreds of fabricated sermons and speeches, in English and Spanish, underscore how easily hoaxes created using artificial intelligence can elude detection and dupe viewers. "There's natural interest in what the new pope has to say, and people don't yet know his stance and style," said University of Washington professor emeritus Oren Etzioni, founder of a nonprofit focused on fighting deepfakes (archived here and here). "A perfect opportunity to sow mischief with AI-generated misinformation." After AFP presented YouTube with 26 channels posting predominantly AI-generated pope content, the platform terminated 16 of them for violating its policies against spam, deceptive practices and scams, and another for violating YouTube's terms of service (archived here and here). "We terminated several channels flagged to us by AFP for violating our Spam policies and Terms of Service," spokesperson Jack Malon said. The company also booted an additional six pages from its partner program allowing creators to monetize their content (archived here). TikTok similarly removed 11 accounts that AFP pointed out -- with more than 1.3 million combined followers -- citing the platform's policies against impersonation, harmful misinformation and misleading AI-generated content of public figures (archived here, here and here). - 'Chaotic uses' - With names such as "Pope Leo XIV Vision," the social media pages portrayed the pontiff supposedly offering a flurry of warnings and lessons he never preached. Image Screenshot from YouTube taken May 28, 2025 But disclaimers annotating their use of AI were often hard to find -- and sometimes nonexistent. On YouTube, a label demarcating "altered or synthetic content" is required for material that makes someone appear to say something they did not (archived here). But such disclosures only show up toward the bottom of each video's click-to-open description. A YouTube spokesperson said the company has since applied a more prominent label to some videos on the channels flagged by AFP that were not found to have violated the platform's guidelines. Image Screenshot from YouTube taken June 6, 2025, with a newly added synthetic content label outlined by AFP TikTok also requires creators to label posts sharing realistic AI-generated content, though several pope-centric videos went unmarked (archived here). A TikTok spokesperson said the company proactively removes policy-violating content and uses verified badges to signal authentic accounts. Brian Patrick Green, director of technology ethics at Santa Clara University, said the moderation difficulties are the result of rapid AI developments inspiring "chaotic uses of the technology" (archived here). Many clips on the YouTube channels AFP identified amassed tens of thousands of views before being deactivated. On TikTok, one Spanish-language video received 9.6 million views while claiming to show Leo preaching about the value of supportive women. Another, which carried an AI label but still fooled viewers, was watched some 32.9 million times. No video on the pope's official Instagram page has more than 6 million views. Experts say even seemingly harmless fakes can be problematic especially if used to farm engagement for accounts that might later sell their audiences or pivot to other misinformation. The AI-generated sermons not only "corrode the pope's moral authority" and "make whatever he actually says less believable," Green said, but could be harnessed "to build up trust around your channel before having the pope say something outrageous or politically expedient." The pope himself has also warned about the risks of AI, while Vatican News called out a deepfake that purported to show Leo praising Burkina Faso leader Ibrahim Traore, who seized power in a 2022 coup (archived here). AFP also debunked clips depicting the pope, who holds American and Peruvian citizenships, criticizing US Vice President JD Vance and Peru's President Dina Boluarte. "There's a real crisis here," Green said. "We're going to have to figure out some way to know whether things are real or fake."
France 24
10 hours ago
- France 24
Trump says fresh US-China trade talks in London next week
The talks in the British capital on Monday will mark the second round of such negotiations between the world's two biggest economies since Trump launched his trade war this year. "The meeting should go very well," said Trump in a post on his Truth Social platform. The president added that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would meet the Chinese team. The first talks between Washington and Beijing since Trump slapped levies on allies and adversaries alike took place in Geneva last month. While Trump had imposed a sweeping 10 percent duty on imports from most trading partners, rates on Chinese goods rocketed as both countries engaged in an escalating tariffs battle. In April, additional US tariffs on many Chinese products hit 145 percent while China hit back with countermeasures of 125 percent. Following the talks last month, both sides agreed to temporarily bring down the levels, with US tariffs cooling to 30 percent and China's levies at 10 percent. But this temporary halt is expected to expire in early August and Trump last week accused China of violating the pact, underscoring deeper differences on both sides. US officials have accused China of slow-walking export approvals of critical minerals and rare earth magnets, a key issue behind Trump's recent remarks. While Trump's long-awaited phone call with Xi this week likely paved the way for further high-level trade talks, a swift resolution to the tariffs impasse remains uncertain. © 2025 AFP
