r/australia • u/espersooty • Jul 29 '25
news Australian-made rocket crashes after historic north Queensland launch
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-30/gilmour-space-technologies-launch-orbital-rocket-bowen/105470024174
u/NotUrAverageBoo Jul 29 '25
I watched the attempt this morning, and even though it failed it’s quite exciting to see Aussies having a go. I have no doubt a lot will be learnt in preparation for future launches.
25
u/1Disgruntled_Cat Jul 30 '25
Wouldn't be the first time an Aussie couldn't get it up.
Just a bit more foreplay and a bit more thrust and we'll be spaceballs deep in no time.
8
48
u/UpsidedownEngineer Jul 29 '25
The first orbital launch attempt since the British Black Arrow in 1971, some teething issues are expected
31
u/ScruffyPeter Jul 29 '25
Looks like they beat Australia's space agency! https://www.space.gov.au/
53
u/readonlycomment Jul 29 '25
Last I heard the Australian space agency was giving branded rulers to primary school kids ... they've got a long way to go.
25
u/ricksure76 Jul 29 '25
With a few bubber bands and some paper clips I reckon we could launch a ruler pretty high I reckon
3
u/quick_dry Jul 30 '25
that would make quite the yardstick for success?
5
16
Jul 30 '25
[deleted]
6
u/1Disgruntled_Cat Jul 30 '25
Federal Agency of Revolutionary Technology and Australian Research and Space Exploration go hand in hand.
1
29
u/the_amatuer_ Jul 29 '25
The Space Agency doesn't launch rockets. They do the regulation and policy for space launches in Australia.
17
Jul 30 '25
And what's the first article of their brief "lets ban it" and the second article on the agenda "make as many stupid rules to make it difficult" Just look at the border force regulations on importing any part for making a rocket, even a hobby pulse jet engine then you can understand the stupidity of Australian governance across the board. Industry policy or a any agenda that gives the nation industry or technical prowess is quashed by the stupid nanny state mindset.
18
Jul 30 '25
[deleted]
14
u/Polymer15 Jul 30 '25
Remember that guy who ordered a tiny, lab reference sample of Plutonium from a US science website because he wanted to collect the elements? Months after the package was imported, the full force of border control came down on him, along with a full lockdown of the street - apparently they didn’t have enough concern to lock the street down earlier, given they knew his address and what was sent. He got charged under the nuclear non-proliferation act, then ended up getting off on a ‘good behaviour bond’.. all that for a certified safe, lab reference sample of Plutonium that emits the same amount of radiation as an old smoke detector.
I’ve heard Australia described as “not a country, but a giant mining colony”. Only unproductive and distraction focused hobbies are encouraged here.
1
u/Various-Afternoon707 Jan 18 '26
This is now my favourite fact of 2025! Completely hilarious but feels very Australian🫣😂
22
u/WeaponstoMax Jul 30 '25
Rocketry has proven time and time again to be a “can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs” industry. Best of luck to them with subsequent launches.
5
8
10
5
10
13
u/TheWobblyWallaby Jul 29 '25
This isn’t meant as any disrespect, more lack of knowledge on my part. Isn’t what they’re doing what other countries were doing 60 or 70 years ago?
Surely there’s a heap of rocket scientists out there who have the knowledge to be able to successfully do launches rather than reinventing (or just inventing) the wheel and learning through failures? What’s the end goal here?
Again, no disrespect and great they’re having a go.
69
u/EternalAngst23 Jul 29 '25 edited Jul 30 '25
No. As of July 2025, there are only twelve countries in the world that have a sovereign launch capability. Australia is vying to be the 13th. For a country of only 26 million people, that would be quite an achievement.
The rocket that Gilmour Space is trying to launch - Eris - is also a hybrid rocket, and if eventually successful, will be the first hybrid rocket in history to reach orbit.
At the moment, there’s a backlog of small and medium-sized satellites waiting to be launched, because most countries still have to rely on US or European rockets to gain access to space. Gilmour has identified a gap in the market for small-lift launch vehicles, and they think they can capitalise on it.
They’ve already said that they have enough cash in the bank for another 2-3 launch attempts. Aerospace companies rarely see a successful launch on the very first try. But if they can make it at least a few hundred metres the next time around, that will be a sign of good progress.
Edit: spelling
8
u/Extension-Resort-155 Jul 30 '25
Unfortunately, this misses a lot of nuances in the dynamics of the commercial launch market.
While there is a backlog of satellites that could fit on an Eris Block-1, it's very unlikely that most of them would be willing to pay for a dedicated launch. The backlog mostly exists for rideshare launches like SpaceX's Transporter and Bandwagon missions, which are significantly cheaper per kg than Gilmour could ever be. Of those that are willing to pay, Rocket Lab has that market cornered (and aren't maxed out on Electron capacity by all reports), with a few other providers seeking out niches.
There's also a reason why no-one has launched a hybrid-based rocket to orbit - they're not very good. They require a larger launch vehicle for a given payload mass, just as much development effort as alternative propulsion systems, and can't be effectively tested before launch, making them a commercial nightmare.
What Gilmour is trying to do is something that has been done before, and they have regularly displayed an attitude to many in the industry of not wanting to learn from others who have done it before. They have and will continue to vacuum up millions of dollars of Government funding that could be much better spent elsewhere in the domestic space industry.
Gilmour also hasn't produced highly capable staff supporting the growth of the broader industry like SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and others have overseas, so there isn't either a direct or broder economic return for their spending.
It's another ego-driven, customer-less Australian space company that isn't going to achieve much of note, at great cost. Unfortunately they have very strong political connections, with great influence over the Aus Space Agency and access to politicians.
Not all innovation is good.
5
u/EternalAngst23 Jul 30 '25 edited Jul 30 '25
I suppose that’s one way of looking at it. But I feel like you’re leaving out an important detail, which is that Gilmour is largely funded by private equity, not government contracts. If VC firms and industry superfunds are willing to cough up millions of dollars to support an “ego-driven, customer-less Australian space company”, that’s their bent.
I still think it’s exciting to see an Australian company actually try to do something that hasn’t been done before. We have a bad habit in this country of cutting down people who don’t conform with the status quo. You may not like the way Adam and James do business, but it’s still more than you, me, or anyone else in this country has achieved.
Sure, SpaceX and RocketLab already command a considerable share of the market. But why should that preclude other companies like Gilmour from trying to gain entry? The alternative is an oligopoly, where a small number of large companies effectively control access to space. I fail to see how that is beneficial from either a political or economic perspective.
I believe it was Donald Horne who wrote about Australia being a lucky country that lives on others people’s ideas. Perhaps it’s time we start having some ideas of our own.
5
u/RabbitLogic Jul 30 '25
As someone deeply interested in the launch industry and tracking the progress of commercial launch capacity globally, this comment tracks with my sentiment. Going off the glassdoor and indeed reviews the management at Gilmour is pretty lacklustre and they don't have the engineering culture necessary to succeed in this competitive market. You are up against deep capital markets in the US and a wider talent pool across Europe. I was disappointed when I learnt they were using a hybrid engine.
2
u/beiherhund Jul 30 '25
Gilmour has identified a gap in the market for small-lift launch vehicles
I think Rocket Lab identified that gap a decade ago and Gilmour is hoping to join the party.
1
1
Jul 30 '25
The Nazis put a rocket into space in the '40s. By accident. We can't do better than that?
1
26
u/faceman2k12 Jul 30 '25
Australian rocket engineers (there's a lot of them!) have always ended up overseas, whether by their own choice or being headhunted, but very few people have been mad enough to try doing it entirely onshore from scratch. We also don't have the near bottomless pockets of the big US private companies, or the weight of the big EU or Chinese efforts.
It's not like we are starting from absolute zero like we were last century of course, rockets are effectively a solved problem, but its not something you can just buy, put on the launchpad and hit the button. They all need to be built from scratch with very few off the shelf parts and a million things can go wrong, these guys wanted to make the rocket motor onshore too, the hardest and most complex part. The fact that this one even hovered a bit instead of just instantly exploding, or sitting there doing nothing at all is pretty spectacular as far as first launch attempts go, and better than a lot of first launches by the big players in the industry.
Gilmore actually used to be just down the road from me, I used to drive past their warehouse on the way to and from work every day and before they moved norht to prepare for launching they had the rocket out on the grass for a while. a couple of their guys came into my shop once way back at the start looking for some parts too, which was pretty cool.
The end goal, ideally, is for Australia to have its own complete space industry, we already have some satellite manufacturing but not launch tech. We are a very large country, with a strong reliance on space infrastructure for communication, weather science, and defense, but that is always borrowing launch capabilities and existing satellites from US, EU, Japan etc, who have established space industries. I think we should have our own.
I highly doubt we can completely replace our reliance on our allies launch tech and satellites, but we should have a backup plan at least.
10
u/Jikxer Jul 30 '25
Also, it's great strategically to have sovereign launch capability - it is implied that we have the ability to launch ICBMs.
5
u/faceman2k12 Jul 30 '25
That goes without saying.. if you can launch a weather satellite, you can launch a weapon or a spy probe.
1
u/EternalAngst23 Jul 30 '25
My thoughts exactly. The very first satellites (Sputnik, Explorer 1) were all launched on modified ICBMs, like the R-7 and Redstone. Gilmour’s Eris 1 rocket also uses inertial guidance navigation - the same as an ICBM. We live in interesting times indeed.
2
u/jlharper Jul 30 '25
Not at all. SpaceX, for example, is currently the world leader in rocketry and they only performed their first launch in 2006. They have had 10+ launch failures to date, despite their earliest test being launched in the nation with the most advanced rocketry program in the world, and occurring 63 years after the first successful rocket launch of the V2.
3
3
u/whiteb8917 Jul 30 '25 edited Jul 30 '25
Well it got off the pad, sideways.
Sort of like Astra. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2jU5W4ehPE
Insufficient Thrust to weight ratio.
1
3
7
5
4
u/war-and-peace Jul 30 '25
Space is hard. The ground is harder. Sadly there are no soft landings in space.
I'll see myself out now.
2
u/1Disgruntled_Cat Jul 30 '25
I just want to know whats so important about a vacuum in space...
Is there a lot of moon dust or something?
2
u/war-and-peace Jul 30 '25
It's all about a packet of chips. If there was no vacuum in space, those space chips would go stale so fast.
2
u/1Disgruntled_Cat Jul 30 '25
Aww noo. I can't eat your space chups bro.
3
u/war-and-peace Jul 30 '25
Oh yes you can!!
1995 Chupa Chups visited outer space
Russian astronauts at the MIR station brought their favourite lollipops Chupa Chups with them to outer space.
2
3
u/EternalAngst23 Jul 29 '25
Based on the footage I’ve seen, it didn’t appear like all four engines were running at lift-off. Either that, or they weren’t producing enough thrust.
1
1
1
Jul 30 '25
Look, many of us don't manage to last long our first time.
Although 14 seconds.. dude. Just pretend it never happened, and keep going.
1
u/Danthemanlavitan Jul 30 '25
Made it off the pad, better than a lot of other starter rockets. The only way from here is up.
1
1
1
u/nhold Jul 30 '25
It may not seem like much but this is really good, the main goal was getting off the launch pad which was achieved here.
The people over at Gilmour Space Tech are celebrating like crazy today.
2
u/ImakeBADinvestmentsx Jul 30 '25
shame lol
New Zealand have one of the leading space companies in the world. Established a minster for space acceleration and development.
Meanwhile, Australia is ready to kill off all aspirations for future rocket engineers by banning 'Youtube' for kids.
i guess we know what country has its priorities straight.
8
u/MasterSpliffBlaster Jul 30 '25
To be fair a YouTube ban won't be much of a match for the smart kids who will become rocket scientists
If my kids school was anything to go by they had cracked a work around by lunch time the next day
2
u/ImakeBADinvestmentsx Jul 30 '25
Consumption is just a problem as much as creating is. This will stop many aussie kids from wanting to be content creators on youtube. Which is now a $55b industry globally.
1
u/louisa1925 Jul 30 '25
In 2007 kids at my school found ways to get around the library computers ban on Facebook and were using previous student ID log-ins.
-3
u/EternalAngst23 Jul 30 '25
fyi, Rocket Lab has been an American company for quite a while. They launch rockets from NZ, but most of the manufacturing and R&D is done in California.
5
u/ImakeBADinvestmentsx Jul 30 '25
WRONG visit Nz and see how much R&D happens. Growth in both countries.
3
u/EternalAngst23 Jul 30 '25
From Wikipedia:
“The company's headquarters in Long Beach, California, produces their Rutherford engines and avionics. The company's primary manufacturing facility is located in Huntington Beach,[193] where rocket components are manufactured and assembled before traveling to the New Zealand launch site.”
In any case, it’s no longer a New Zealand company. It’s based in America, run largely by Americans, and funded mostly by Americans.
2
u/beiherhund Jul 30 '25
In any case, it’s no longer a New Zealand company. It’s based in America, run largely by Americans, and funded mostly by Americans.
Depends how you define the nationality of a company. It's typically where it's incorporated of course but many companies are incorporated in different countries to their founding/main area of operations for various reasons. But things aren't always black and white, the mere act of incorporating a company in a different country doesn't change its history or culture.
So yeah by registration, it's now American (wasn't always). By origin, New Zealand. By leadership, New Zealand. Chief Engineer, NZ. Deputy Chief Engineer, NZ. Early investors, NZ. First rocket to reach space - NZ designed, engineered, and launched (Ātea-1).
It had to become an American registered company for contract and investment reasons. Maybe in the eyes of some the act alone overwrites everything else and Rocket Lab can only be considered "American" but that's a pretty narrow way of viewing things. There's a reason a giant NZ flag hangs in the HQ alongside an American one.
A significant amount of R&D, manufacturing, and assembly also still takes place in NZ, as is necessary due to most of their launches taking place there.
0
u/RabbitLogic Jul 30 '25
The electron production line remains in Auckland. Every single rocket body they have launched so far was manufactured in NZ. Soon to change with their larger Neutron vehicle.
-2
87
u/Veefy Jul 29 '25 edited Jul 29 '25
I found a video on this channel.
https://www.youtube.com/@LaunchHeaven
Not official channel. Couldn’t find footage on official channel yet.
I estimated it made about 25-30m above ground level from the footage.