Southern Launch and ATSpace return to launch up to two Kestrel I rockets

After a severe electrical storm damaged an ATSpace rocket on the launch pad in November, the company has announced that repairs have been completed and they will attempt another launch in the coming weeks, followed by another already planned launch of a second rocket.

Southern Launch and ATSpace have received permission from the Australian Space Agency to launch the VS02 and VS03 missions from the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia.

Both missions will test the two-stage, sub-orbital Kestrel I rocket’s viability while gathering data on the noise and environmental impacts of conducting launches at the Whalers Way complex in anticipation of future commercial launches.

In the VS03 mission, the 10-metre-tall Kestrel I rocket will carry three South Australian designed payloads to an altitude of 200km at speeds of more than 5000km/h and spend about 10 minutes in space.

The journey over the Southern Ocean will be tracked onboard through a state-of-the-art payload, reducing the need for ground-level surveillance.

South Australian companies Southern Launch, ATSpace, Asension and Inovor Technologies have collaborated on the VS03 mission.

ATSpace was founded in Australia in January 2021 and is the sister company to TiSPACE from Taiwan.

Inovor Technologies, which provides turnkey spacecraft mission delivery services, built the spacecraft that will house the payloads designed by Asension and Southern Launch.

The sub-orbital spaceflight will allow the companies to test their technologies under launch conditions and monitor the payloads to help inform future space missions.

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