Australia’s first rocket company continues to be blocked by red tape
Australia’s commercial spaceports. Click for original map.
The first rocket launch by Gilmour Space, Australia’s first rocket company, from its Bowden spaceport on the east coast of Australia has apparently been blocked by continuing bureaucratic regulatory red tape.
In February the company had announced a planned launch date in March, based on what appeared to be the issuance (after more than a year’s delay) of its launch licence. That launch however never happened, with no public explanation, until now. From the link above:
In an update on Sunday, the Queensland-based firm said it had received approval from CASA and is now waiting for final clearance from the Australian Space Agency.
…It had planned for an inaugural blast-off in April 2024 but faced a lengthy delay in obtaining its final permit from the Australian Space Agency.
In other words, the launch license had only been promised, but then was not issued, leaving the company stranded for several more months, with that license still buried in the government’s byzantine operations.
The article at the link says the Australian government is now moving to streamline its space regulatory system, but don’t believe it. The elections this week saw a resounding victory for the leftist coalition with the conservative party defeated handily. With the left now in firm control, expect the regulation to increase, not decrease. Leftwing governments almost never reduce regulation. It goes against their power-hungry genetics.
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Australia’s commercial spaceports. Click for original map.
The first rocket launch by Gilmour Space, Australia’s first rocket company, from its Bowden spaceport on the east coast of Australia has apparently been blocked by continuing bureaucratic regulatory red tape.
In February the company had announced a planned launch date in March, based on what appeared to be the issuance (after more than a year’s delay) of its launch licence. That launch however never happened, with no public explanation, until now. From the link above:
In an update on Sunday, the Queensland-based firm said it had received approval from CASA and is now waiting for final clearance from the Australian Space Agency.
…It had planned for an inaugural blast-off in April 2024 but faced a lengthy delay in obtaining its final permit from the Australian Space Agency.
In other words, the launch license had only been promised, but then was not issued, leaving the company stranded for several more months, with that license still buried in the government’s byzantine operations.
The article at the link says the Australian government is now moving to streamline its space regulatory system, but don’t believe it. The elections this week saw a resounding victory for the leftist coalition with the conservative party defeated handily. With the left now in firm control, expect the regulation to increase, not decrease. Leftwing governments almost never reduce regulation. It goes against their power-hungry genetics.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Whether it is space or aviation, don’t bother to try doing it in Australia. The bureaucrats in both CASA (Civil Aviation Safety Authority*) and Australian Space Agency (who would know nothing about launching rockets) will have the same modus operandi. Encourage a business, bleed them dry with permit fees etc, delays until just before the project comes to fruition, it runs out of money. Too bad, so sad. Seen it often.
Gilmour should pack up and move to the USA.
Australia is an open air prison, a country of convicts lorded over by prison warders.
*Note that this isn’t an Agency or Administration, but an AUTHORITY. Tells you about the mindset.
Further to last weekend’s Australian election. The Australian Labor Party (currently hard left, leader is former Sydney University Student Union Trotskyite) won and has enough seats in the lower house to govern in its own right. We won’t know the make up of the Senate for a couple of weeks but with luck the minor parties will make it resemble the Mos Eisely cantina.
The nominal “Conservatives” (actually Center Left) ran an abysmal campaign with an extremely uncharismatic leader and no clear and consistent policies. Designed to lose. Also Australia has had extremely high levels of immigration and the welfare dependent vote herd votes Labor for more bennies.
Stick a fork in us, we’re done. We don’t have enough hard working Germans to make an East Germany work (they almost but not quite, made Communism work) so it is pre Milei Argentina for us or worse, Venezuela.
Donald, please send the Marines.