After 54-year wait, Australia’s first attempt at an orbital rocket crashes 14 seconds after liftoff
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The first rocket entirely made in Australia, Eris-1, has just rushed on earth 14 seconds after taking off. The launch was the first attempt at the country’s orbital flight in almost 54 years.
On Tuesday July 29, at 8:35 a.m. local time (6:35 p.m.), the Australian private company Gilmour Space Technologies launched the first of its Eris class rockets from Bowen Orbital Spaceport in Queensland Coastal. However, only 23 seconds after the rocket ignited its engines and only 14 seconds after takeoff, the spacecraft was back on the ground.
A launch video shows that the rocket initially took off as expected, with its four engines pulling properly. But after cleaning the launching ramp, his ascent quickly set, and he started to slide on the side before returning to the ground and disappearing in a cloud of smoke, probably landing on the side. There was no apparent explosion, but the rocket quickly broke out in flames.
Eris-1, who was about 82 feet (25 meters) in height, was the first spaceship entirely built by an Australian company. It was also the first attempt to launch orbital in the country since October 1971, when the United Kingdom successfully launched a British Black Arrow rocket in space from a space in southern Australia, according to AP news.
The launch was initially scheduled for March, but was postponed due to the unfavorable weather conditions caused by Cyclone Alfred. He was then rebuilt again in mid-May when a piece of his payload “broke out” the rocket on the launch pad, according to the Sister Science site Space.com.
In relation: Look at a private German rocket explode during the 1st attempt to launch orbital from European SOIL (video)
No one was injured during the accident, and there was no “unfavorable environmental impact”, according to a declaration sent by e-mail of Gilmour Space. However, the company has not yet revealed what went wrong.
Despite only 14 seconds of flight, Gilmour space representatives said that the launch was a major success, describing it as a “big step” and an “impressive result”, in a Published on the social platform X. Historically, most of the young girl’s private rocket launches fail to erase the launch ramp, they added.
TESTFLIGHT1 – REGINE 🚀TODAY, Eris has become the first orbital rocket #Australianmade to start from Australian soil – ~ 14s flight, 23s Burning engine.big for 🇦🇺 Launch capacity. Sure team, hand data, Eyes on Testflight 2. (More photos and upcoming videos from the media.)July 30, 2025
“Withdrawing from the pad and in flight is a huge step forward for any new rocket program”, ” Adam GilmourGilmour Space co-founder and CEO, said in the press release. “It was the first real test of our rocket systems, our propulsion technology and our space – and that has proven that a large part of what we built works.”
The ERIS rockets are designed to launch 660 pounds (300 kilograms) of low terrestrial orbit, about 15 times more than the Falcon 9 rockets. Their main useful expenses will probably be small communication satellites, which are also developed by Gilmour Space.
It is currently not known when the next Eris mission should be launched.
