07 November 2023, Adelaide, Australia

Equatorial Launch Australia (ELA), owner and operator of Australia’s leading spaceport, the Arnhem Space Centre (ASC), today announced ex-Apple executive and Royal Australian Air Force Navigator/Intelligence Officer, Travis Marshall, as its new Head of Business Development. The appointment strengthens the company’s senior commercial team as it expands its horizons towards wider commercial and Defence space opportunities.

The newly created role will be pivotal in developing customised launch contracts including launch, engine testing, payload and mission management, mission planning and consultation for Defence and international newspace commercial rocket companies looking to launch from the Arnhem Space Centre.

Group CEO and Executive Chairman of Equatorial Launch Australia, Michael Jones, welcomed Travis to the team saying, “As ELA continues its schedule of discussions with international rocket launchers, we are delighted to announce the appointment of Travis to help drive that process and to ensure we fill out our immediate launch schedule as well as preparing for the next five to ten years of launches from the spaceport.”

“Additionally, Travis will hold the remit to expand our horizons into defence where we are uniquely positioned to provide sovereign infrastructure and capabilities that contribute to Australia’s access to space,” said Mr Jones.

Having been based in Singapore as Senior Business Development Manager of Education with Apple for the past six years, Travis cited the achievements of ELA as the primary reason for his move into the sector. “With my background in technology and Defence, the space industry has long been an area that I wanted to transition into, and ELA stood out as an exciting opportunity. We are on track to deliver more commercial launch contracts by the end of the year, and I am excited to be able to assist in this key endeavour.”

The growing groundswell of interest in the Australian Space sector as well as the recent announcement of the signing of the Technology Safeguards Agreement are also collectively helping ELA to secure exceptional talent. “Hiring exceptional talent is how you build exceptional businesses,” added Mr Jones.
ELA has grown significantly since its three successful launches with NASA in 2022, and attention is now focussed on developing the Arnhem Space Centre as a multi-user commercial spaceport as well as a key piece of infrastructure in Australia’s sovereign space Defence capability.

Travis is a graduate of the Australian Defence Force Academy, the Canadian Forces Air Navigation School and the Defence Intelligence Training Centre. He conducted several operational deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, with his final deployment serving as the Chief of Key Leadership Engagement based in Kandahar.

ELA is on track to be the pre-eminent multi-user commercial space launch company providing testing, launch and recovery of space vehicles and payloads flown to and from all space orbits. The Arnhem Space Centre, in East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia is located 12 degrees south of the equator, offering rocket companies and their payload customers multiple orbit options, operational freedom and simplicity for their launch and mission design.

Travis homebase will be at ELA’s headquarters at Lot Fourteen in Adelaide with extensive travel to the Arnhem Space Centre in East Arnhem Land, Canberra and internationally to meet with clients in their hometowns.

26 October 2023, Adelaide, Australia. 

Equatorial Launch Australia (ELA), owner and operator of Australia’s leading spaceport, the Arnhem Space Centre (ASC), has welcomed the joint announcement today by the President of the United States, Joe Biden and Australia’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, indicating the imminent signing of the Technology Safeguards Agreement (TSA), to occur Thursday 26 October 2023, U.S. time. 

The United States and Australia have announced that they intend to sign a TSA that provides the legal and technical framework for U.S. commercial space launch vehicles to launch from Australia. The agreement will protect sensitive U.S. launch technology and data while in Australia and creates the potential for new space-related commercial opportunities between the two countries.  

“Equatorial Launch Australia welcomes the announcement of the signing of the TSA, opening the way for collaboration and contractual opportunities with U.S. space companies to launch with ELA from the Arnhem Space Centre. In particular ELA can now advance and finalise contractual arrangements with U.S. companies launching from the Arnhem Space Centre,” said Chairman and Group CEO of ELA, Michael Jones. 

“We have been engaged with and negotiating with U.S. rocket manufacturers for several years now and we have all be awaiting the TSA completion. Today’s events are great news for us and clears the way for us to finalise our contracts with U.S. launchers. The agreement with the U.S. will be the most comprehensive and detailed TSA of its kind for any nation and there has been a lot of effort by key Australian space industry parties and government entities behind the scenes to ensure we get it right,” Mr Jones said. 

“This announcement overnight by President Biden and Prime Minister Albanese means that ELA can now move ahead to finalise multiple draft contracts we have negotiated with several U.S. launchers and we are thrilled that the two governments have announced this landmark agreement, giving us the green light to finalise our contract with U.S. rocket manufacturers,” said Mr Jones. 

ELA is on a mission and on track to be the pre-eminent multi-user commercial space launch company providing testing, launch and recovery of space vehicles and payloads flown to and from all space orbits. The Arnhem Space Centre, in East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia is located 12 degrees south of the equator, offering rocket companies and their payload customers multiple orbit options, operational freedom and simplicity for their launch and mission design.

Equatorial Launch Australia announces new GM of Arnhem Space Centre as international interest in launching from the spaceport grows and redevelopment ramps up in readiness for next launches.

12 October 2023, Adelaide, Australia

Equatorial Launch Australia (ELA), owner and operator of Australia’s leading spaceport, the Arnhem Space Centre (ASC), today announced Craig Gibbons as its new General Manager, Arnhem Space Centre. This critical appointment has been made as international interest in launching from the spaceport increases and as ELA prepares for its next launches on the back of signing its first multi-launch customer, South Korean rocket company, INNOSPACE.
Craig’s appointment marks a pivotal point for ELA as the company bolsters its leadership team and skill base in readiness to service up to seven rocket companies to be based at the Arnhem Space Centre commencing in 2025. Craig will take on the newly created position to oversee the phase 2 development of the spaceport and support ELA’s new ‘resident launcher’ operating model – a multi-user commercial spaceport servicing several co-located newspace rocket companies, each conducting multiple launches over multi-year campaigns.

Group CEO and Executive Chairman of Equatorial Launch Australia, Michael Jones said, “We are delighted to announce the appointment of Craig to this critical role within ELA. As we prepare for our next launches Craig’s appointment is vital to ensure we meet our target of developing a world-class spaceport and deliver on our promise to provide first-class launch services to our rocket launchers and their payload customers.”

ELA has grown significantly since its three successful launches with NASA in 2022, and attention has now turned to attracting international ‘newspace’ rocket companies to the site to set up as ‘resident launchers’, the first of which is INNOSPACE, with other signings imminent.

“As new launch vehicles come to market, the requirements on spaceports are changing. The past decade has seen a seismic shift in the development of new commercial launch vehicles to meet the needs of the growing small satellite market in this newspace era,” Mr Jones said. “As the industry matures and transitions from institutional launch to increasing commercial launch requirements, we see an opportunity for the Arnhem Space Centre to service this new generation of space companies and offer an alternative to congested overseas spaceports. Craig’s broad background of leading complicated and highly technical businesses and programs to deliver successful outcomes for customers positions him well to take on the project.” said Mr Jones.

With a foundation as an Army Officer and a Helicopter Pilot, Craig Gibbons brings over 30 years of experience in roles providing leadership in operations and transformation. Following his defence force career, Craig made the successful transition into Senior Executive roles within commercial settings. His most recent role in Auckland, NZ, was as the CEO of Northern Rescue Helicopter Limited where he oversaw the transition of two existing trusts into a new contemporary aeromedical organisation. Prior to that he was General Manager, CareFlight Operations (Northern Territory based) where he led a multitude of commercial contracts and co-developed the strategy and led the winning bid for the delivery of the NT Interstate Dedicated Aeromedical Jets contract.

Craig also brings to ELA experience in the Information Technology, Aerospace and Defence industries from roles held at Raytheon, NRMA, and Fuji Xerox as well Olympic security planning, integrations and operations support for the Sydney and Athens Olympic Games.
A graduate of the University of NSW where he obtained a Master of Business and Technology, Craig is also a graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon.
ELA is on a mission to be the pre-eminent multi-user commercial space launch company providing testing, launch and recovery of space vehicles and payloads flown to and from all space orbits. The Arnhem Space Centre, in East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia is located 12 degrees south of the equator, offering rocket companies and their payload customers multiple orbit options, operational freedom and simplicity for their launch and mission design.

Craig joins the existing ELA executive team including Group CEO and Executive Chairman, Michael Jones; GM Operations and Launch, Ben Tett; GM Space Technologies and Engineering, Adrien Doucet and GM Finance and Commercial, Russell Shaw.

To learn more, view Craig’s Linkedin here.

ELA CEO Michael Jones recently spoke at World Satellite Business Week in Paris. Below is Michael’s recap and lessons learned from a week in space!

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Earlier this month I attended what can only be described as the very best international conference for space companies and their CEOs – World Satellite Business Week, held in Paris 11-15 September 2023.

Amongst the regalia and decadence that comes with a conference like this held in Paris – the ceilings in the venue alone were worth writing home about – were key take aways that were learned across the week, not only in the presentation/panels, but also in the 1:1 discussions during networking, and serendipitous meetings on the side lines of panel sessions.

I was honoured to be part of the Access to Space for SmallSat panel on the Wednesday. A notable theme was aligned to the expected continuation of the growth in the small and medium satellite market with another 20-30,000 satellites expected in the next 8-10 years, and the general growth/increase in the size and weight of SmallSats. What was previously averaging around the 50-200kg average mark is now clearly increasing up to 400-600kgs range. This increase in SmallSat size was seen as a result of several factors: reduction in CubeSat and other smaller satellites, multi-sensor EO and proliferation of large constellations of “small comms” and internet constellations.

Overall, this could lead to an adjustment in demand for new space small launchers. The 500-1,500kg payload capacity seems to be the “trending” sweet spot. What will this mean for launchers with <500kg payload capacity? The expected launch of several new small launchers in 2024 will soon tell us, is my guess.

ELA Group CEO and Chairman Michael Jones and Founder, Chairman and CEO of Astra Chris Kemp

Other key themes were:

Launch Capacity.  Growing concerns over launch backlog and growing demand for launch. A good situation for the new launchers coming on line soon. This concern may also be a contributor to growing satellite size and capability (lower numbers and better quality satellies).

Growth in the OTV/Tug market.   As a consequence of both the increased size/weight of satellites and the growing demand for precision insertion there is a clear and growing demand for OTVs and “tugs”. The operational missions of satellite retrieval, in-space servicing, repositioning and deorbiting are all contributing to this trend.

This OTV market growth is also stimulating the demand for new smaller and highly efficient (low weight/high thrust and fuel efficient in space propulsion system) space vehicle propulsion solutions.

Spectrum management. The RF spectrum is and is becoming more congested, and therefore driving/supporting a number of developments such as: on platform processing, software determined satellites in both LEO/MEO and GEO, some shift to optical coms. This will continue to be a hot topic alongside space situational awareness.

GTO/GEO making a comeback. Despite rumblings that GTO was a thing of the past, there appears to be a reversal of that thought with different configurations/replacement and new architecture of GEO supporting and driving more GEO and GSO demand.

MEO being talked about seriously. It has always been there but GEO Latency, LEO congestion etc is resulting in a definite increase MEO discussions and interest.

Launch. From a launch perspective, a key theme coming through was concern over global congestion of launch capacity – because there is a limited number of orbital spaceports globally, and an increasing number of launchers and payload customers. A situation that is only getting worse from an access-to-space perspective.

For example, Kennedy/ Cape Canaveral had 55 launches last year (a record) and are aiming to have around 98 this year. Vandenberg is a similar story with 15 launches in 2022, and up to 48 scheduled for this year. Whilst Kourou has been abnormally quiet due to circumstances with the Ariane 5 retirement, Ariane 6 delays and Vega technical delays, Arianne Space is booked out for both Ariane 6 and Vega for the foreseeable future.

The launch supply shortage is attributed to a combination of mega constellations (Starlink, One Web and Amazon Kuiper) accounting for 4-6,000 satellites being launched, as well as an increase in institutional launch primarily in the ISR/National security areas and the replacement/establishment of space infrastructure.

This is where Australia can come in. Offering significant orbital launch capabilities, like those provided by ELA, to “new space” smaller rocket companies and their payload customers will not only help relieve that backload, but it will also provide the precision insertion and tailored services which are so in demand right now for these smaller sized rockets – which will soon account for up to half the number of launches and over 8% of the payload delivered.

Investment in Space.  Often talked about – the ‘decrease’ and quantum of Investment in space was also an eye-opening key topic of the Paris conference.

Over the past three years investment has decreased in terms of total dollars invested but the number of the deals and the quality of investable assets has increased significantly. The mega deals of 2021 skewed the data somewhat.

• 2021 – US$50Bn – year of the mega deals.
• 2022 – US$21Bn – completed deals had solid fundamentals and accepted slightly lesser return on investment
• 2023 – US$9bn has already been invested and is looking like an increase towards end of year – again definable return and path to profit defined the quality of deals.
• 2024 – expected increase to quantum of transactions expected and again a step up in quality.

2023 is being characterised by slight increase in “smaller deals of higher quality” and a trend to later stage entry with quality of revenue and clear market positioning required. Higher intertest rates and bond yields result in investors just parking money and waiting for the ‘right deal’.

Governmental budgets. This also inevitably became a topic of conversation with modest increases in the US to US$26bn. Likewise ESA’s budgets of €7.1Bn has been more targeted and aggressively deployed with:

• $1.2Bn in Navigation and positioning satellite/technology
• $1.8bn in Earth Observation
• $0.6Bn in Telecom

The reduction in Australian budget to circa. A$405m puts it in the third quartile globally and is a clear message to industry here: do it on your own and be competitive from the outset.

Understanding the international perspective and market trends is important for Australian space companies to ensure we are operating and existing as part of the global space ecosystem and to make sure we aren’t left behind. We need to predict and intercept the market and provide the services where and when they are required. We can’t expect or rely on government support.

Each time I travel, I make sure to fully debrief the team upon my return. Collectively, we take these learnings and integrate them into our approach to market, ensuring that we are offering a world class, demand-driven and relevant service to our international customers.

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EQUATORIAL LAUNCH AUSTRALIA SIGNS MULTI-LAUNCH CONTRACT WITH INNOSPACE TO CONDUCT ORBITAL LAUNCHES FROM ARNHEM SPACE CENTRE   

17 August 2023, Adelaide, Australia and Sejong, Korea 

Equatorial Launch Australia (ELA) the developer, owner and operator of the Arnhem Space Centre (ASC) on the Gove Peninsula in Australia’s Northern Territory, has today signed a multi-year, multi-launch contract with Korean aerospace company, INNOSPACE, for a series of orbital launches from the Australian spaceport. 

The agreement will see the launch of several INNOSPACE rocket variants each carrying between 50kg and 500kg payloads into low earth orbit from the ASC across a five-year timeframe until Dec 2028.  

ELA is widely regarded as the most advanced multi-user commercial spaceport in the world, and the signing of this contract has validated the business concept and development plans by securing INNOSPACE – the only hybrid-fuelled rocket company worldwide to have successfully launched into space – as the first commercial company to become a ‘resident launcher’ (long term tenant and regular launcher) at the Australian spaceport. The first launches by INNOSPACE from the ASC are expected to commence in early 2025. ELA previously had a three-launch contract with NASA. 

ELA has been working with the Australian Space Agency (ASA) to expand its existing Launch Facilities Licence (LFL) to support orbital launches from the ASC with a range of orbital rockets, differing azimuths and trajectories and a much wider array of propellant mixes and rocket configurations as part of its Phase 2 Development Plan. This work with the ASA will now expand to assist INNOSPACE to obtain its first Australian Launch Permit (ALP). This ALP approval process is expected to take between 6 and 14 months commencing later his year. 

As one of up to seven planned ‘resident launchers’ INNOSPACE will be allocated a Space Launch Complex (SLC), comprising two modern ASC launch pads customised to INNOSPACE’s rocket requirements and an extensive Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) which allows for rocket assembly, payload integration (in an ISO 8 clean room) and has overhead cranes, offices, workshops and system test facilities in a temperature and humidity controlled environment. Each SLC is fully enclosed and encompasses a range of ITAR compliance measures including video and movement sensor security, extensive fencing, and access control. 

Michael Jones, Executive Chairman and Group CEO of ELA said the contract with INNOSPACE was a major milestone for ELA. “We are delighted to announce this multi-launch and long-term agreement with INNOSPACE and what we hope is the first of several launch agreements which we have been developing for some time. INNOSPACE is a truly innovative company with outstanding technology and is one of the leaders in the emerging market of smaller launch providers. INNOSPACE is one of the first of the next batch of “new space” rocket companies to launch and with increasing congestion at major spaceports globally, INNOSPACE has recognised the unique launch/geographic, infrastructure and commercial benefits of launching from the ASC.”  

“The launch contract and associated space launch complex agreement which we have been discussing for over a year provide INNOSPACE with the flexibility they require around launching a range of launch vehicles at an increasing cadence over the next five years,” he said. 

“This contract demonstrates the potential for the ASC to deliver on our goal of being the pre-eminent commercial launch site globally. With the combination of our launch pad design/technology, launch inclination options, geopolitically stable base, infrastructure, logistics and engineering support solutions we have developed, we know we offer a highly competitive and attractive spaceport solution,” said Mr Jones.  

“Last year’s three successful launches with NASA allowed us to showcase the skill and capabilities of both the ELA team and the Arnhem Space Centre to the world. We’re excited to embark on that journey again – this time with INNOSPACE. It is a very important part of our ethos and culture to be known for what we achieve and not what we predict, and this contract again shows this aspect of ELA.” 

Dr Soojong Kim, CEO of INNOSPACE said, “we are thrilled to have secured an optimal launch spaceport, the ASC, which has the benefits of launching from an equatorial spaceport and brings launch efficiencies through this multi-launch agreement with ELA. Our goal is to offer customers greater flexibility for their launch schedule and orbit access with frequent dedicated launch opportunities. We expect to enable our satellite customers to achieve significant innovation with our orbital launch services by launching from the ASC.”