Equatorial Launch Australia will close its Northern Territory spaceport and relocate to a new site on the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland after continued delays securing a renewed lease agreement.
The company announced the decision to immediately cease operations on the Gove Peninsula, where its Arnhem Space Centre (ASC) – the site of Australia’s first commercial space launch – has existed for the last eight years.
It ends a year-long struggle to secure approval for an expanded spaceport, which was projected to inject $3.6 billion into the local economy with the arrival 14 additional launchpads.
ELA secured a 40-year sub-lease from the Gumatj Aboriginal Corporation, a group representing the traditional owners of the land, for the 60-hectare ASC in November 2018.
But the company had proposed to expand the spaceport, requiring the Arnhem Land Aboriginal Land Trust – the land on which the ASC is situated – to vary the existing lease and grant another.
ELA has been in protracted discussions with the Northern Land Council (NLC), which is responsible for the Arnhem Land Aboriginal Land Trust, for almost three years, according to the company.
Consultation on the proposal to expand the site, however, only began in October 2023, with the NT Environment Protection Authority (EPA) recommended that approval be granted, subjected to conditions, late last month.
In a statement late on Monday, ELA said its most recent attempt to finalise a lease for the expansion of the ASC in October had been unsuccessful, following three other failed attempts in the last 12 months.
In each case, it said the NLC had “failed to meet its own specified deadline for the approval of the Head Lease” or “provide any official reason for the delay”, despite pleas from the NT government and the Gumatj Aboriginal Corporation.
InnovationAus.com has contacted NLC for comment. In a submission to the NT EPA in August, the corporation said it had not consulted with First Nations people on the proposal but expected environmental concerns, and made several recommendations.
With South Korean rocket startup Innospace expected to use the ASC from 2025, ELA said the “continued delays from the NLC have made the existence of the spaceport… challenging”.
“… The most recent delay to late 2025 to allow consultation with traditional owner groups had the potential to put ELA in breach of its contractual obligations with launch clients and jeopardize a previously secured major funding round,” it said.
“Accordingly, management and the board of ELA were left with no option other than to act in the best interest of its customers and shareholders and abandon negotiations to seek an alternate equatorial site in Queensland.”
The new site, which will be located near the coastal mining town of Weipa, will be named Australia Space Centre Cape York. ELA has commenced planning and regulatory clearances and plans to release more information on the site in the coming days.
ELA said it is “saddened” that its $100 million investment in the top end will now no longer materialise. The ASC was highly appealing for rocket launches due to its proximity to the equator.
The ASC was used for Australia’s first commercial space launch in 2022, when NASA launched three scientific suborbital sounding rockets. Pending regulatory approval, the first Innospace launches from the ASC were expected to take place in 2025.
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