Gilmour Space's first rocket launch from Queensland is just weeks away

Federal authorities have finally given the green light for Gold Coast rocket builder Gilmour Space Technologies to launch Eris, the first Australian-designed and built rocket for orbit.

The space tech startup said the weeks after March 15 are the window for its inaugural flight.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and Airservices Australia signed off on the launch from the Bowen Orbital Spaceport at Abbot Point, North Queensland. It’s one of only a few private orbital launch sites globally, and will initially provide access to low- and mid-inclination orbits.

Gilmour Space built the Bowen spaceport, which received the first orbital launch facility licence in Australia nearly 12 months ago. Now the space tech startup is finally preparing for liftoff.

The 23-metres-high Eris rocket had a successful “wet dress rehearsal”, progressing the countdown to T-10 seconds, last September, having first moved into place on the launchpad in April 2024.

Gilmour Space was founded in 2013, and has grown to more than 200 employees, built a local supply chain of more than 300 Australian companies, raised $142 million in venture funding, including $19 million Series B in 2018 and $61 million in a Series C in June 2021 and a $55 million Series D in 2024, as well as attracting tens of millions in funding from local, state and federal governments.

Investors include Blackbird, Main Sequence, Fine Structure Ventures, the Queensland Investment Corporation, and superannuation funds HESTA, Hostplus, and NGS Super.

Cofounder and CEO Adam Gilmour said the launch will be the first attempt of an Australian rocket to reach orbit from Australian soil, but warned a lot still has to go right before the test flight.

“Firstly, it’s important to understand that delays or ‘scrubs’ are a normal part of rocket launches. These can last anywhere from hours to days, or even weeks, and are often caused by weather conditions, technical issues, or other factors. “Safety is always the top priority. We’ll only launch when we’re ready, and when conditions are appropriate,” he said.

“Secondly, the first launch is always the hardest. Reaching orbit is a highly complex engineering challenge, and every successful rocket company has faced setbacks in their early attempts—SpaceX, for one, did it on their fourth attempt. It’s almost unheard of for a private rocket company to launch successfully to orbit the first time.”

“Thirdly, this is the road we must take to build sovereign space capability that’s critical for Australia’s future. Launching Australian-owned and controlled rockets from home soil means more high-tech jobs, greater security, economic growth, and technological independence.

“Only six countries in the world are launching regularly to space using their own technology, and Australia could soon be one of them.”

Gilmour said that whether we make it off the pad, reach max Q (maximum dynamic pressure), or makes it all the way into space, every second of flight delivers valuable data to improve the rocket’s reliability and performance for he future launches.

“I want to thank our incredible team at Gilmour Space for all their hard work and dedication in getting to this critical first flight.,” he said.

“Whatever happens next, know that you’ve already made history—we now build rockets in Australia. And this is only the beginning.”

You can get more details on Eris TestFlight 1 at gspace.com/missions.