Australia’s commercial spaceports as of 2024. Click for original map.

Two stories today about the success of one Australian commercial spaceport and the failure of another illustrate perfectly the normal ups and downs one can expect from freedom and capitalism.

The ports in question are Southern Launch and Equatorial Launch Australia. In the first story, Southern Launch announced today that it has raised $25 million in private investment capital.

Adelaide-based spaceport operator Southern Launch has raised $25 million in a funding round led by national security investor Brindabella & Company, with the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) committing $10 million in direct equity to help scale Australia’s sovereign launch infrastructure.

The capital will fund expansion of Southern Launch’s two facilities – the Koonibba Test Range on the far west coast of South Australia and the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex near Port Lincoln – as the company works to meet growing demand from domestic and international launch customers.

Though the spaceport has obtained several tentative launch contacts, this success is mostly the result of its multiple contracts by capsule companies to use Koonibba as a landing site. There is a boom in this recoverable capsule industry at this time — with lots of investment money and multiple companies flying or building capsules. Koonibba at this moment has become the go-to place for such landings.

In the second story, we learn the sad fate of Equatorial Launch Australia (ELA). Back in 2024 the port announced it was supposedly unable to get permission to launch from its planned site on the Gove peninsula in the Northwest Territory of Australia, as indicated on the map. The company claimed it was moving to a new location on the York peninsula in Queensland, directly to the east, and renaming itself Atakani. Nothing however has happened since, and the circumstances of the switch remained very murky.

It appears that part of the company’s problems has been financial, related to the severance package of its former CEO, Carley Scott, who left the company in 2022. Her package was quite generous, so generous the company has been fighting it for years. A decision last week by Australia’s federal court says it now has to pay her more than $2 million, money that this company likely does not have.

On June 19, 2026, the Federal Court found that Carley Scott, the former CEO of Equatorial Launch Australia, was entitled to $2,367,430.25 under a special contract built around her work for the start-up, plus $17,458.58 in unpaid employment entitlements.

According to the article at the link, ELA was liquidated years ago, and this court proceeding is part of the fight to distribute its assets. Though Atakani claimed to be ELA restructured, and with a signed land lease says it is open to suborbital launches, it appears inactive at this time. It is unclear whether these court proceedings will impact it further.