/sci/ - Science & Math

>>16162090
Australia was a launch site for Black Arrow back in the 1960s before Britain decided that spaceflight was for chumps, and the USSR wanted to build a commercial Proton or Zenit up in Queensland but that never went anywhere for State Department reasons. A few private individuals tried to keep the idea of the idea of the Cape York Spaceport alive after the wall came down, but that sputtered out due to concentrated government indifference.

Australia's not a bad place for a spaceport, but there are some factors that always keep it a second place finisher in a race that only has a first place prize. There aren't really any good locations that can can do both equatorial and polar launches. Most of the sites that are good for one or the other are distant enough from civilization to require an impractical investment in infrastructure, and the government has a history of not wanting to contribute to that. There's also a large and politically vocal aboriginal population and any major development project will get a horde of tribals popping up claiming that it's defiling their traditional spirit lands.

Still, Gilmour Space is making headway and should have a domestic small launch vehicle ready to go soon. Bowen Orbital Spaceport has revived all the government it needs to begin operations. HyImpulse launched a suborbital pathfinder from the Koonibba Test Range a week ago, so there's a chance that the Germans will be launching a rocket from Australia as well as from SaxaVord.