SYDNEY – NASA will launch a rocket from the rugged wilderness of northern Australia on Sunday evening, marking the country's first commercial space launch and the agency's first from a commercial spaceport.
The suborbital rocket will be visible for a few seconds after launch, which is set for 10:44 p.m. (1344 GMT) in Australia Central Standard Time, and will go 300 kilometres (186 miles) into space.
According to Australian National University astrophysicist Brad Tucker, who will be 400 metres from the launch pad at the Arnhem Space Centre, the arid Australian countryside and proximity to the equator provide ideal conditions for space launches.
"At 12 degrees, there aren't many locations closer to the equator than Arnhem." There aren't many sites near the equator where you can find dry, steady air. "Florida, where Cape Canaveral is," he remarked, alluding to NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
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The US space agency, formally known as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has announced three launches from Arnhem Space Centre in June and July to help it investigate how a star's light influences the habitability of a planet.
NASA stated in a statement that the mission on Sunday will carry instruments to monitor X-rays produced by heated gases that fill the space between stars in order to understand how they impact the growth of galaxies.
According to Tucker, the second and third trips in July will examine Alpha Centauri, the closest star to Earth and the closest to the Southern Cross constellation, which appears on the Australian flag.
The constellation and Alpha Centauri are only visible from the southern hemisphere. "The primary purpose is to investigate whether there are possibly Earth-like planets surrounding it," he explained, adding that scientists had been waiting a decade for a rocket launch from the Southern Hemisphere.
It will be visible for 10-50 seconds. "The science teams will be active 100 seconds after launch, directing the telescope on board."
They will know how successful it is in real time." NASA is the first client for Equatorial Launch Australia's commercial spaceport, and 70 NASA personnel have travelled to Australia for the three flights.
Both the cargo and the rocket will return to Earth that evening.
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