Gilmour Space Technologies has pushed back its latest test flight attempt by 10 days, owing to windy conditions at the site of its Bowen Orbital Spaceport in northern Queensland.
In an update on Wednesday, the company said its July 16 launch window had been “scrubbed” and that it is now working towards a new window opening July 27 for the maiden launch of its Eris rocket.
“Unfortunately, operational delays set us back a day, and the latest upper wind forecasts have now ruled out a safe launch from Thursday through the rest of the week,” Gilmour Space said on LinkedIn.
“Not the outcome we hoped for, but that’s the nature of test flights. Chins are up and eyes forward – our tireless team is now tracking to No Earlier Than (NET) 27 July.”
Gilmour Space has now scrubbed three launch attempts since it was given the green light from the Australian Space Agency in early May. One of the launch attempts was cancelled due to an electrical fault that caused Eris’ nose cone to open.
But as founder and chief executive Adam Gilmour told InnovationAus.com earlier this week, every launch attempt has been invaluable for the company on the road to the first orbital launch from Australian soil in more than 50 years.
“We have done seven test campaigns, and off the top of my head in every campaign there has been something that has not worked or malfunctioned, and we’ve fixed it,” Mr Gilmour said.
“We know so much about how the rocket works now, and that helps us with the next one, and the ones after that.”
Once the maiden test flight is complete, Gilmour Space is giving itself six months to launch a second test flight, and is also planning to launch the first test of its new HyPeRsonic FLight Test service.
The company last week partnered with Space BD, one of Asia’s largest payload service providers, to begin offering its global satellite customers launch opportunities from Australia.
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