Australia is to join the international, space-launch industry, with the signing of an historic agreement today between the Commonwealth and the Kistler Aerospace Corporation of the United States. Test flights are expected to begin by the of 1998.
“An initial $50 million capital investment will be made over the
coming year,” Mr Moore said. “In the 12 years after start-up, the
project is expected to contribute $2.9 billion to Australia’s GDP, up
to $1.4 billion to our Balance of Payments, and create over 3,000
person-years of employment, primarily in regional South Australia.
This is very good news,” said Mr Moore.
“Kistler plans to use its two-stage, re-useable space launch vehicle –
the K1 – to capture a share of the lucrative communications satellite
launch market,” Mr Moore said.
As the first, fully re-useable commercial launch vehicle, the K1
represents leading edge, cost-effective satellite launch technology.
Both stages of the K1 return to the launch site at Woomera, landing
safely with the assistance of parachutes and airbags. The vehicle is
then reconditioned and can be re-used up to a hundred times. This
presents major cost advantages over expendable launch vehicles.
The K1 currently is under construction in the United States, and
Kistler expects to launch its first commercial payloads in 1999.
Kistler says it was attracted to Australia because of the availability
of relevant infrastructure, and launch sites with overland flight
paths in unpopulated areas. The company says Australia also won this
major, long-term project because it was prepared to move efficiently
to establish an appropriate regulatory regime which allowed Kistler to
meet its operations schedule.
The Agreement was negotiated by the Department of Industry, Science
and Tourism, which will regulate the space launch industry in
Australia. The Department of Defence, which controls the Woomera
Prohibited Area defence range, is also a partner to the Agreement.
The space launch project has already received the required
environmental approvals and it is expected that all project approvals
will be received in time to allow construction to begin at Woomera by
mid-1998.
