13. Australia’s first commercial space launch

Today Southern Launch are poised to launch Taiwan’s Hapith I as Australia’s first commercial space launch - a big milestone for the industry. In other news, a lunar rover collaboration kicks off with Japan, an asteroid has been named after an Aussie space archaeologist, and much more!

More about the Hapith I launch:

• Southern Launch mission overview (PDF)
• Hapith rocket on Gunter’s Space Page
• ABC News article: Australian Space Agency announces first commercial launch from Whalers Way

Space company news:

• iSpace partners with UTS and EXPLOR Space Technologies on a lunar mining rover with multipurpose arm
  • Space Connect op-ed by Dr Alex Grant: Australia and Japan's alliance key to space race success
• Myriota received investment from IAG's venture capital arm, Firemark Ventures
  • Ping case study: Saving wind farms half a billion dollars in maintenance costs

Follow-up on Waratah Seed:

• WS-1 payload competition
• Waratah Seed satellite info pack v2

Space people:

• Dr Alice Gorman has asteroid ‘551014 Gorman’ named after her

Upcoming events:

• Tue 14 Sep at 4pm Adelaide time - “Venture Capital for Space”, with Bill Bartee from Main Sequence, and Enrico Palermo, Head of the Australian Space Agency.
• Wed 15 Sep - 12th Australian Space Forum at the Adelaide Convention Centre, or virtual attendance.

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