Koonibba Test Range
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 TED-02 Launch, September 2020 | |||||||||
 Interactive map of Koonibba Test Range | |||||||||
| Location | Koonibba, South Australia | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coordinates | 31°53′08″S 133°26′55″E / 31.885558°S 133.448686°E[1] | ||||||||
| Operator | Southern Launch | ||||||||
| Total launches | 5 | ||||||||
| Launch pad | 1 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
The Koonibba Test Range is a rocket test range site near the township of Koonibba in the far west of South Australia. Rockets are launched to the north over a clear area – the Yumbarra Conservation Park and Yellabinna Wilderness Protection Area – for 145 kilometres (90 mi).
Koonibba Test Range was reported in 2020 to be the world's largest privately owned rocket test range and the world's first permitted by an indigenous community to be launched from their land.[2] The range allows companies, universities, space agencies and other organisations to pay for their rockets to be taken to the site, launched, and rockets and payloads to be recovered.[2]
In 2019 and 2020, the private space company Southern Launch consulted with the Koonibba Community Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal corporation, before developing the test range site.[3] Members of the local community have been employed to set up and operate the range.[4]
DEWC Systems, an Adelaide-based company, conducted two launches at the range in September 2020.[5][4] A rocket containing a small replica payload was scheduled to be launched on 15 September 2020, with a second launch on 19 September. The first launch failed, but both launches were successful on the morning of 19 September 2020.[6] It was aimed at collecting information to develop a new technology consisting of tiny cube-shaped satellites, known as cubesats, for electronic warfare. The training and employment opportunities were welcomed by the community.[4][5]
In October 2023 it was reported that Varda Space Industries had reached an agreement with Southern Launch to reenter and land their second mission at the Koonibba Test Range, due to launch mid-2024.[7]
On 3 May 2024, HyImpulse's SR75 suborbital rocket flew its maiden launch (mission titled "Light this Candle"; expected apogee: 200 km (120 mi)) successfully from Koonibba.[8] The German-made hybrid-propellant rocket was fueled by candle wax,[9][10] and was the biggest spacecraft launched on Australian soil.[11][dubious – discuss]
On 27 November 2025, ATSpace, the Australian subsidiary of tiSpace, launched its in-house-built A01 sounding rocket. The vehicle recorded a flight duration of approximately four and half minutes and reached an apogee close to 80 km.[12]
