Under the deal, Space BD will offer clients the opportunity to blast off payloads on both the Queensland firm’s upcoming Eris rocket and ElaraSat satellite bus.
The news comes after Gilmour surprisingly postponed plans to launch Eris last week, first due to windy weather and then to give its teams a “more flexible launch window”. The company is now opening a new window on 16 July.
“Space BD has supported more than 90 satellite missions and over 600 space-related projects, with expertise in launch integration, satellite deployment, and supporting experiments on the ISS, including in-orbit demonstration services,” said Gilmour in a statement.
“This partnership will expand Space BD’s global offerings while strengthening space cooperation between Japan and Australia.
“Under the agreement, Space BD will act as an agent for launch opportunities on Gilmour’s Eris orbital rocket, as well as for hosted payload capacity on the ElaraSat small satellite platform. Space BD will also support the procurement of subsystems for the ElaraSat bus.
“Launches would take place from the Bowen Orbital Spaceport in North Queensland, Australia – a location that offers diverse orbital access and flexibility for Southern Hemisphere missions.”
Eris is a three-stage orbital vehicle and the first to be almost entirely Australian-designed and manufactured. The premier launch would mark one of the most significant moments in the local sector’s history and the first attempt at an orbital blast-off in 50 years from Australian soil.
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Gilmour has repeatedly stated that the initial blast-off of Eris is likely to end in failure and admitted that a flight time of 20 or 30 seconds would be “fantastic.”
Last week’s scrubbed attempt to launch came after another attempt on 15 May was cancelled due to a power surge that triggered a fault on the rocket’s carbon-fibre nose cone.
That attempt itself came after a string of previous delays, including disruption caused by Tropical Cyclone Alfred and trouble obtaining the necessary permits from the Australian Space Agency. Founder Adam Gilmour, though, said all previous issues had been fixed ahead of a planned second attempt on 1 July.
Separately, the company also revealed that its first satellite bus, ElaraSat, is operating as expected following its launch on SpaceX’s Transporter 14 rideshare mission last week.
While engineers were initially warned that it could take up to four days to establish contact with ElaraSat, they eventually received the all-clear within eight hours.
“The fact that we can put it up in a space successfully and test it will be a big milestone for the company,” Gilmour said.
The 100-kilogram satellite platform is carrying a hyperspectral imager from CSIRO that can monitor algae in Queensland’s rivers and lakes.
The successful mission means the company joins Fleet, Inovor, Space Machines Company, and Skykraft in locally building satellite or satellite buses (effectively the fuselage or main body of the spacecraft).
Adam Thorn
Adam is a journalist who has worked for more than 40 prestigious media brands in the UK and Australia. Since 2005, his varied career has included stints as a reporter, copy editor, feature writer and editor for publications as diverse as Fleet Street newspaper The Sunday Times, fashion bible Jones, media and marketing website Mumbrella as well as lifestyle magazines such as GQ, Woman’s Weekly, Men’s Health and Loaded. He joined Momentum Media in early 2020 and currently writes for Australian Aviation and World of Aviation.
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