Eris rocket launch day arrives for Gilmour Space Technologies
Thursday could mark a historic moment in Australia's budding space ambitions with maverick manufacturing company Gilmour Space Technologies set to fire off its Eris rocket from a launch pad in North Queensland.
The company designed and manufactured the three-stage rocket at its Gold Coast factory and if the launch goes ahead, it would mark the country's first-ever rocket shooting for the stars.
Gilmour received final approvals for launch from the Australian Space Agency and CASA last week and now has a lift-off window from 7.30am AEST through to Sunday.
Mission control is housed in a donga about 7km outside Bowen in Queensland's Whitsunday region.
Gilmour Space co-founder and CEO Adam Gilmour told NewsWire this week he would 'hit the town' hard with a successful launch.
'I think it will be like winning an Olympic gold medal,' he said.
'I think I'll be extremely happy, and I'll give my brother a big hug.
'I intend to hit the town of Bowen hard that night for a party and buy everyone a beer.'
Mr Gilmour and his brother James founded the Gold Coast company in 2015 to uplift Australia's sovereign space capabilities and compete with American giants like Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Eris is designed to send small satellites into low earth orbits for commercial and government customers.
It is unlikely, however, that Thursday's planned launch will achieve orbit.
Mr Gilmour said key metrics for success were getting the rocket off the pad and then flight time, with 10 seconds a crucial marker.
'That's like winning a soccer match one-nil,' he said.
'Two-nil is 30 seconds and all the way to first stage is three-nil and then it just gets better from there.'
No space company has successfully entered orbit on its first launch attempt.
SpaceX achieved orbit on its fourth attempt in September 2008.
Mr Gilmour said the company hoped to reach orbit on its third attempt.
It is not certain the launch will happen on Thursday.
Strong winds, for one, could delay the event.
'The weather forecast looks really good for Thursday to Sunday,' Mr Gilmour said.
'We're going to give it a good crack.'
A jar of vegemite and a camera will ride on the rocket.
The company is backed by venture capital firms Blackbird and Main Sequence, the Queensland Investment Corporation and superannuation funds HESTA and HostPlus and last year raised $55m to fund its manufacture and test of Eris.
The launch will not be livestreamed but the company will take video of the event and distribute it to media.
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