Taiwanese company TiSPACE has been forced to postpone a test flight of its Hapith l rocket from South Australia's Eyre Peninsula.
The 10 metre, two-stage, sub-orbital rocket was scheduled to blast off from the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex between 6am and 6pm on Friday.
However, "strong upper winds" forced TiSPACE, Whalers Way operator Southern Launch and the Australian Space Agency to postpone the launch.
"Our teams monitored the winds using radiosondes, in conjunction with information provided from the Bureau of Meteorology, and determined that it would be unsafe to launch in the wind conditions monitored throughout the day," Southern Launch said.
A new test launch date has yet to be set.
Southern Launch CEO Lloyd Damp said the delay was a disappointment, but the launch window was still open until September 23rd.
"Space is hard and that's why we're taking an incremental approach to developing an Australian space launch capability," Southern Launch CEO Lloyd Damp said.
"We had planned and trained for this potential outcome, facing an external factor like weather which would result in our teams needing to postpone the launch."
TiSPACE will use the launch to test its hybrid propulsion systems, and as a prelude to commercial launches of satellites in the future.
