Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex
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| Location | Sleaford, South Australia, Australia | ||||||
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| Coordinates | 34°55′S 135°39′E / 34.91°S 135.65°E | ||||||
| Short name | Whalers Way | ||||||
| Operator | Southern Launch | ||||||
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Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex is a commercial spaceport and rocket-launching facility operated by Southern Launch in the locality of Sleaford, near Port Lincoln on the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia.
Southern Launch established its headquarters in Adelaide in 2018, before the city was announced as home for the Australian Space Agency.[1] Its offices are located in Pirie Street.[2]
The launchpad at Whalers Way was publicly announced in December 2018, with Southern Launch leading the project.[3] The project was declared a major development by the state of South Australia on 22 August 2019,[4] and on 23 October 2019 Southern Launch made a joint announcement with Perigee Aerospace of South Korea about the launch of the "Blue Whale 1" rocket from the Whalers Way facility.[5][6]
The facility was officially approved by the Australian Space Agency on 14 July 2021,[7] intended for use to launch commercial satellites.[8]
Southern Launch planned to build two launch pads for orbital launches to polar and Sun-synchronous orbits.[9] Pad 1 was expected to host up to three test launches by the end of 2021.[7]
Launches
When fully operational, it is anticipated that around 25 launches a year will take place at Whalers Way.[10]
Perigee Aerospace became the first customer[11] with a planned launch of its rocket "Blue Whale 1" in July 2020.[12] However, this had not been launched by late August.[13]
On 16 September 2021, 06:39 UTC[14][15] the Taiwanese TiSPACE company's Hapith I rocket (flight VS01[16]) launched from Whalers Way Pad 1 on a suborbital test flight,[17] after two aborted launches.[18] This was the maiden flight of Hapith I and first of three test launches from Pad 1 at Whalers Way.[17] The flight suffered a launch failure at ignition, causing the rocket to catch fire.[19] The intended apogee of the flight was 250 km (160 mi),[20] and as payload the rocket carried an Ionosphere Scintillation Package (ISP)[21] for the Taiwanese National Space Organization. The ISP included a compact ionospheric probe, a star tracker, and an aspectometer for the purpose of ionospheric scintillation research.[21][22]
Two more test launches of the vehicle, conducted by ATSpace under the Kestrel I name, are scheduled for late 2022.[needs update][23]