South Australia is home to the first two launch facility licences awarded by the Australian Space Agency.
Koonibba Test Range
The Koonibba Test Range is located 40km north-west of Ceduna on the West Coast of the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. Jointly operated by Southern Launch and the Koonibba Community Aboriginal Corporation, the test range is one of the largest commercial testing facilities in the world and is Australia’s first licensed space launch facility.
Extending across 145km of uninhabited national park, the launch site specialises in suborbital launches providing companies with the ability to recover rockets and their payload to do further testing and systems validation before launching into orbit.
In September 2020, for the first time in Australia’s history, the site facilitated the successful launch of two commercial space-capable rockets.
In April 2023, Southern Launch, and the Koonibba Aboriginal Corporation announced their partnership to develop permanent world-class facilities at the Koonibba Test Range after the Koonibba Aboriginal Corporation was awarded $4.5 million in funding to expand the offerings at the test range.
View the Southern Launch website for further information about the Koonibba Test Range.
Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex
The Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex is located on the Southern tip of the Eyre Peninsula, less than a one-hour flight from Adelaide and around 35 minutes from the regional city of Port Lincoln.
Operated by Southern Launch, the Complex is Australia’s second space launch facility granted a licence by the Australian Space Agency and supports orbital launches into the highly sought after polar and sun-synchronous orbits.
The site received State and Federal Government planning and environmental approvals in October/November 2024, with work to begin on construction of two new launch pads at the Complex. The first launches are scheduled to take place in late 2025.
Covering 1600 hectares of open land and 6km of ocean frontage, the Complex provides commercial users with access to orbit flight trajectories over the Great Australian Bight, maximising spacecraft payload to orbit. The complex will also accommodate hypersonic flight testing with land-based tracking systems.
Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex offers ideal launch conditions, including stable year-round weather, low maritime and air traffic, as well as greater launch window availability and launch schedule flexibility.
View the Southern Launch website for further information about Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex.
