Queensland deputy Premier and Treasurer Cameron Dick was an early champion of Gilmour Space Technologies’ plan to design, build and launch an orbital vehicle from a Queensland spaceport.
In a previous role as Minister for State Development, Cameron Dick had backed the Gilmour ambition, including through the lease of a parcel of land within the Abbot Point State Development Area near Bowen in north Queensland.
When the state first put its money behind the company through the Queensland Investment Corporation, Gilmour Space was a far more speculative commercial venture than the company is today, on the eve of launch.
So Mr Dick has a more than passing interest in the progress of Gilmour Space’s march toward the maiden test flight of its Eris launch vehicle.
After cutting the ribbon to officially open Gilmour’s Bowen Orbital Spaceport on Thursday, the Treasurer said he could see quite early that investment in the space sector was an opportunity to diversify into a fast growing, frontier industry that could provide positive spillover for the regions.
In Queensland, “we are so uniquely placed – geographically particularly – for an orbital launch,” Mr Dick told InnovationAus.com at the launch.
“Together with the passion and the commitment of [Gilmour Space founders Adam Gilmour and James Gilmour], that made it very clear to me as the then Minister for State Development, that we should get right behind the development of the space industry,” he said.
“So that’s why we released our first Space Industry Plan – and Queensland was the first state to do that.”
The Bowen Orbital Spaceport was officially granted its licence in early March to conduct orbital rocket launches, but it was only on Thursday that the facility was given a smoking ceremony by representatives from the local Juru people.
The 23-metre Eris launch vehicle is now fully integrated and has been attached to the purpose-build transporter/erector, which will lift the rocket into its vertical position for a series of final tests ahead of launch.
The company, which is still waiting on its final launch permit from the Australian Space Agency, now expects that it will be ready for the first test flight of its Eris vehicle to launch in four to six weeks.
“It is incredible to come here now and to see the rocket, almost ready for launch, and to see all of the hard work, dedication [and] courage required to pull this together,” Mr Dick said.
“To create a rocket that can be used to put Queensland or Australian-made satellites into space, I think, is an incredible thing.”
Mr Dick said the state’s investment into the space sector had always been predicated on the potential for direct spillover benefits to the regions.
In the case of the Bowen Orbital Spaceport, Gilmour Space co-founder and head of launch operations James Gilmour said that about 78 per cent of the company’s $10 million investment in building the spaceport had gone to local suppliers.
That included everything from hiring a local town planner consultant, to a local earthmoving company for the early civil works, to local cement companies for the pad, and local engineering companies for construction of the cyclone proof Vehicle Assembly Building.
The more complex work related to the movement and storage of fluids and oxidisers together with all the electrical work he says is carried out by local engineering firms based on Gilmour designs, including the construction of the fluids tower, and the pad’s water deluge system.
The transport/erector and hold-down equipment are all highly complex pieces of equipment, and each has been manufactured locally to Gilmour designs.
James Gilmour says the use of local companies for as much as possible has been a deliberate and methodical strategy that started with a meeting with local companies in a PCYC hall when the company first arrived at Bowen.
“We were looking for the supply of everything, from industrial gases to industrial liquids, to cleaners to sign-writers, environmental monitors, security, water supply… everything. We have tried to source everything we can from the local community,” he said.
“We had in mind that if you don’t do your bit to support local industry, then you are going to lose local support. And they have supported us. They back us. There is a growing level of excitement now.”
