The launch company said operational delays set its team back a day before upper wind forecasts ruled out a safe blast off for the rest of this week. It will now target a new launch window that could open from 27 July.
Gilmour’s latest attempt was due to begin on Monday, with the rocket rolling out of its vehicle assembly building that evening.
However, the three firm attempts this year, mostly cancelled due to bad weather, came after a string of further delays, including disruption caused by Tropical Cyclone Alfred and trouble obtaining the necessary permits from the Australian Space Agency.
Gilmour had initially hoped to blast off Eris in April last year.
“Not the outcome we hoped for, but that’s the nature of test flights,” said Gilmour on Wednesday. “Chins are up and eyes forward — our tireless team is now tracking to net 27 July!”
Eris is a three-stage orbital vehicle and the first to be almost entirely Australian-designed and manufactured. The 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.
Gilmour has repeatedly said 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”.
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Despite its own launch trouble, the company recently blasted off its first satellite bus, ElaraSat, on SpaceX’s Transporter 14 rideshare mission.
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,” founder Adam 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).
Finally, Gilmour has also recently signed a new deal to collaborate with a Japanese agency to attract new launch customers. Under the agreement, Space BD will offer clients the opportunity to blast off payloads on both the Eris rocket and the ElaraSat satellite bus.
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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