Australia's SCRAMSPACE hypersonic scramjet did not launch today, but may launch tomorrow.The research project led by The University of Queensland is scheduled to launch between September 15 and 21, subject to weather and testing at Andøya Rocket Range in Norway.
The wind has led to launch efforts being called off for the day. We'll have a good night's sleep and try again tomorrow. #scramspace
“The rocket carrying the scramjet launched at 3pm (Norwegian time, 11pm Brisbane time), however the payload failed to achieve the correct altitude to begin the scientific experiment as planned.“The SCRAMSPACE payload, according to our data, was operating perfectly and performed extremely well before and during the launch, and we received telemetry data all the way into the water.“Unfortunately the failed launch meant we could not carry out the experiment as planned.”
Someone in the audience at the press conference I attended at UQ asked why we weren't launching this payload from Australia. The answer was a mumbled incoherent statement about importing solid rocket motors - as far as I can tell, he was saying there's currently laws which prohibit our own military from procuring sufficiently large solid rocket motors, or something, and there's other laws which prohibit the manufacture of large solid rocket motors inside the country.If anyone has more accurate information, it'd be appreciated.
I think the simple answer is that was cheaper. They probably could have launched from Australia if they had enough money, but it was probably orders of magnitude cheaper to just hire a rocket in Norway.
I just thought it would be hard to import any kind of solid rocket into Australia if you're not the military.
Is there somebody we can call to get information?