Koonibba Test Range

The Koonibba Test Range is a rocket test range site near the township of Koonibba in the far west of South Australia. Rockets are launched to the north over a clear area – the Yumbarra Conservation Park and Yellabinna Wilderness Protection Area – for 145 kilometres (90 mi).

Koonibba Test Range
TED-02 Launch, September 2020
LocationKoonibba, South Australia
Coordinates31.885558°S 133.448686°E / -31.885558; 133.448686 (Koonibba Test Range)[1]
OperatorSouthern Launch
Total launchesTwo (19 September 2020)
Launch history
StatusActive
First launch19 September 2020 (2020-09-19)

Koonibba Test Range was reported in 2020 to be the world's largest privately owned rocket test range and the world's first permitted by an indigenous community to be launched from their land.[2] The range allows companies, universities, space agencies and other organisations to pay for their rockets to be taken to the site, launched, and rockets and payloads to be recovered.[2]

History

In 2019 and 2020, a private space company, Southern Launch, consulted with the Koonibba Community Aboriginal Corporation before developing the test range site, which occupies 145 kilometres (90 mi) of uninhabited conservation park about 40 kilometres (25 mi) north-west of Ceduna. It is to be used for space research and launching and recovering rockets. The advantage of the site is that the land on which the rockets may be recovered is vast.[3] Members of the local community have been employed to set up and operate the range.[4]

DEWC Systems, an Adelaide-based company, conducted two launches at the range in September 2020.[5][4] A rocket containing a small replica payload was scheduled to be launched on 15 September 2020, with a second launch on 19 September. The first launch failed, but both launches were successful on the morning of 19 September 2020.[6] It was aimed at collecting information to develop a new technology consisting of tiny cube-shaped satellites, known as cubesats, for electronic warfare. The training and employment opportunities were welcomed by the community.[4][5]

Southern Launch's Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex, at the tip of the Eyre Peninsula, was planned before Koonibba, but as of 2020 was under construction.[7][2]

In October 2023 it was reported that Varda Space Industries had reached an agreement with Southern Launch to reenter and land their second mission at the Koonibba Test Range. The mission is due to launch mid-2024.[8]

References
  1. "South Australian orbital launch and suborbital launch sites". Invest in SOuth Australia. Government of South Australia Department for Trade and Investment. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
  2. "AdelaideAZ". AdelaideAZ. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  3. Lee, Stacey (30 January 2020). "Rocket site in SA to be biggest private test range in the world, company says". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  4. Lee, Stacey (25 August 2020). "South Australian rocket range one step closer to sending satellites into orbit to protect defence force". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  5. "Upcoming Launches". Southern Launch. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  6. Barila, Greg (19 September 2020). "Southern Launch successfully launches rockets to edge of space from Koonibba in outback South Australia". Sunday Mail. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
  7. "Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex". Southern Launch. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  8. Clark, Stephen (19 October 2023). "Varda looks to Australia after delays in obtaining US reentry approval". Ars Technica. Retrieved 21 October 2023.


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