Equatorial Launch Australia (ELA) has successfully completed its second commercial rocket launch with NASA from its Arnhem Space Center (ASC) in the Northern Territory.
A NASA Black Brant IX suborbital sounding rocket was successfully launched at 23:17 ACST on July 6, 2022.
The launch was for the suborbital imaging spectrograph for the irradiation of the transition region of the host stars of the nearby exoplanet, or SISTINE, mission for the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Preliminary analysis shows that the scientific instrument received good data during the flight.
NASA’s SISTINE mission will help astronomers understand how starlight influences a planet’s atmosphere, possibly creating or breaking its ability to sustain life as we know it.
ELA Group CEO Michael Jones said the successful launch was a very exciting follow-up to ELA’s first launch on June 26th.
“Tonight we are delighted to get another successful launch that further strengthens the capabilities of our team and the Arnhem Space Center.
“We look forward to our third launch on July 12 and then the future of the Arnhem Space Center and the Australian space industry.”
The rocket took the scientific instrument to an altitude of 243 km before parachuting down and landing southwest of the launch site.
Recovery operations of the scientific instrument and rocket engines are underway.
A University of Wisconsin X-ray quantum calorimeter, or XQC, experiment was successfully launched on June 26th.
Image: Equatorial Launch Australia
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