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Speaker 1: Well, in some pretty exciting news, you'd have to say. Overnight,

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Speaker 1: NASA's first commercial launch outside of the United States has

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Speaker 1: taken off from the Unham Space Center in Null and Boy,

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Speaker 1: and while it went a little bit later, it wasn't

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Speaker 1: quite to the exact schedule in terms of time. Onlookers

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Speaker 1: were indeed treated to an amazing display of the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory skies last night. Joining us on the line to

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Speaker 1: discuss this a little bit further is astrophysicist with the

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Speaker 1: Australian National University Brad Tucker. Good morning to you, Brad.

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Speaker 2: How's it going?

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Speaker 1: Oh so good?

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Speaker 2: How are you?

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Speaker 1: You must be excited.

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Speaker 2: Oh look, it's still excited, you know. As I said,

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Speaker 2: I'm still standing upside looking at the gantry, the support

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Speaker 2: structure report, bro. What used to have a rocket A

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Speaker 2: rocket that is now you know, successfully launched, as you said,

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Speaker 2: after that period of delayed through some of the weather

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Speaker 2: that we had. Still look, it's still an exciting moment,

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Speaker 2: you know, even though it was such a late night

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Speaker 2: here today, so many people were here bright and early

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Speaker 2: to start on it and get the next one ready.

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Speaker 1: Brad, explain it for us. What was it like last night?

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Speaker 1: You know as you lead into that launch and then

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Speaker 1: finally seeing that rocket actually launch up into the skies.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, it was amazing.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 2: Firstly, you know, the countdown starts about eight hours before

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Speaker 2: because there's this long build up of getting everything ready.

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Speaker 2: Now a lot of this is, you know, not the

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Speaker 2: kind of cool stuff. There's a lot of important checks though,

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Speaker 2: so you know, people have been working on it for

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Speaker 2: a while. Then we get down to about ready for

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Speaker 2: an hour out and the then all of a sudden

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Speaker 2: we get the weather delay launch. And this has been

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Speaker 2: the problem. We've had winds and rain up here and

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Speaker 2: this is retafock from it, and the wind because of

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Speaker 2: the rocket launch is obviously the biggest factor here. And

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Speaker 2: so there was about six times we started the countdown

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Speaker 2: to get closer and then we had to pause it

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Speaker 2: and reset because the wind. At one point we got

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Speaker 2: to eight seconds and then we had to halt because

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Speaker 2: of the wind and restarted to three minutes. So many

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Speaker 2: people were like ah ah, And then we had that

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Speaker 2: final you know, we knew it it was happening. Everyone

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Speaker 2: rushed outside, was standing and then you see the beautiful

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Speaker 2: rockets start to take off and then because we're standing

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Speaker 2: you feel the shock wave travel through us and it

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Speaker 2: just kind of it hits you in the bone.

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Speaker 1: Oh wow, Brad, I can't believe they it took that

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Speaker 1: many almost takeoffs, even getting down to eight seconds.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, you know, imagine you're a kid. You wake

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Speaker 2: up for Christmas, You run down and your parents are like,

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Speaker 2: oh no, you have to wait an hour and fourteen

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Speaker 2: minutes and now open up your present. Just stare at

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Speaker 2: it and imagine what may be inside. That was kind

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Speaker 2: of the feeling for everyone here. That's right, because there

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Speaker 2: was so many times that when we got to three minutes,

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Speaker 2: that was the final three minutes, and we had to

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Speaker 2: stop because of those winds. You know, sometimes we made

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Speaker 2: it for fifty seconds that it said that one time

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Speaker 2: we made it to eight seconds. We were so ready

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Speaker 2: and then no, but we eventually got there.

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Speaker 1: Was there ever any moment last night when you thought,

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Speaker 1: oh goodness, we might not actually be able to do

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Speaker 1: this tonight. Sure this morning?

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Speaker 2: Well, well, looks there was a period where there was

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Speaker 2: so much rain I could not hear anything because of

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Speaker 2: how loud it was with the rain coming down on

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Speaker 2: the roof. Right, I mean, you know it's the dry season, right,

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Speaker 2: It did not really sound very dry last night here.

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Speaker 2: And there was a period everyone's like, oh wow, it

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Speaker 2: is storming outside, what is going on? But you know everyone,

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Speaker 2: this is why everyone is the professionals. They're prepared, was

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Speaker 2: ready for it, budget in for these circumstances and got it.

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Speaker 1: And so how many people turned out in the end

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Speaker 1: to watch.

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Speaker 2: So so onsite there was restriction. So this was just

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Speaker 2: the people at the site for the launch and the

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Speaker 2: other employees, like the NASA employees, but still all the people.

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Speaker 2: Even so there's two more missions, the people who were

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Speaker 2: on the second and third missions happening in the fourth

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Speaker 2: and twelfth of July. They were all standing outside ready

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Speaker 2: and then down the road in a state difference, there

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Speaker 2: was a group of visitors from around and then people

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Speaker 2: in town. So there was people scattered everywhere, plus everyone

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Speaker 2: watching on the live stream and there were so many

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Speaker 2: people want to watch this thing thing up and it

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Speaker 2: was really great. You know, this was the front and

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Speaker 2: center of the space world last night, Brad.

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Speaker 1: You know, for those of us listening this morning, I

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Speaker 1: guess so many of us sort of can't actually comprehend

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Speaker 1: exactly what this launch means for Australia. But also, you

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Speaker 1: know for the Northern Territory, how important is the space industry.

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Speaker 1: You know here in Australia, but now for the territory.

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Speaker 2: It's becoming a big thing. You know, Australia has been

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Speaker 2: doing space for a long time, but a lot of

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Speaker 2: it hasn't been the rockets. Now it's not just about

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Speaker 2: the rockets. That's an important part. And the reason why is,

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Speaker 2: you know, we could build satellites, we could build the experiments.

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Speaker 2: The data we also have to get into space and

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Speaker 2: that's been a critical missing piece and so far, anytime

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Speaker 2: you build an experiment or satellite you have to go

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Speaker 2: overseas to do it. You need to have it in Australia,

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Speaker 2: and you know, the Northern Territory is essentially the best

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Speaker 2: place to do this. Rockets like to go near the equator.

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Speaker 2: The equator is where the Earth is spinning fastest. That's

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Speaker 2: the best part to leave. You can also then obviously

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Speaker 2: access the southern part of the skies. You have a

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Speaker 2: lot of remote dry conditions, so it makes for the

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Speaker 2: very best condition. And I think the fact that NASA

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Speaker 2: is the first customer launching three in a row just

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Speaker 2: kind of goes to show, you know, the valid you know,

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Speaker 2: the validity you get kind of the street cred when

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Speaker 2: NASA comes and says yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, we're

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Speaker 2: gonna do it. And now you know, there are already

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Speaker 2: customers wanting to become other groups, other countries, of other companies,

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Speaker 2: and there is a real vision that you know, this

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Speaker 2: is going to be happening, not you know, three times

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Speaker 2: over three weeks and that's it, but you know, hopefully

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Speaker 2: every week, you know, and this is the business up here.

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Speaker 1: Wow, Now what data is going to be collected from

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Speaker 1: last night's launch?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so last night's launch sent an X ray telescope,

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Speaker 2: So this is looking at X ray lights. So just

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Speaker 2: as ago in the hospitals get an X ray for

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Speaker 2: your bones, we're taking an X ray of the Milky Way.

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Speaker 2: It's really important for understanding the energy and the power

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Speaker 2: of our galaxy. But again it's only visible so far

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Speaker 2: from the north in the state, so all of the

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Speaker 2: other data has been in the northern hemisphere and the

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Speaker 2: southern bits of the galaxy, where in fact the center

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Speaker 2: is has been missing. So it's very critical for putting

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Speaker 2: together an understanding and map of how the galaxy acts.

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Speaker 2: And again you can only access from the southern sky,

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Speaker 2: so that data has already been collected. They started taking

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Speaker 2: it one hundred seconds after launched last.

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Speaker 1: Night, and so from last night's launch and even though

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Speaker 1: they were those delays, it was it was definitely considered successful,

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Speaker 1: wasn't it?

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Speaker 2: Oh, it isn't. Look, the weather delays is completely normal.

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Speaker 2: You know Florida when they launch, they have weather delays

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Speaker 2: all the time. And you know Florida the Giant's walk,

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Speaker 2: you know it, they have alligators, We have crocodiles up here,

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Speaker 2: so you know's there's similarities, there's parallels, and there's differences,

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Speaker 2: and so you know, weather delays are very common. That

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Speaker 2: was nothing that anyone sneezed about. The mechanical, the operational

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Speaker 2: and again it's not just the rocket launching at that moment,

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Speaker 2: it's all the work before and after all of that

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Speaker 2: has gone according to plan, and again that data has

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Speaker 2: been collected and that means it's a successful mission. So

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Speaker 2: the first commercial launch from Australia is most definitely a

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Speaker 2: successful one.

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Speaker 1: And Brad, I know that. You know, as you've just

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Speaker 1: pointed on there and as we obviously saw last night,

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Speaker 1: the way they did have a part to play is

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Speaker 1: the weather as we go into the wet season. Obviously

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Speaker 1: we're in the dry at the moment, but as we

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Speaker 1: do head into the wet season, will that hinder us

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Speaker 1: being able to launch rockets, you know throughout other parts

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Speaker 1: of the year.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So there may have to be a seasonal variation

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Speaker 2: to some of these launches, and that's not a bad thing.

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Speaker 2: A lot of these sites do this. In fact, there

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Speaker 2: are launch sites, say in the Arctic towards Bauldgard and

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Speaker 2: Sweden or the Alaska and they have periods where they

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Speaker 2: launch and they have periods that they don't what the

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Speaker 2: biggest thing that people are seeing is there are so

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Speaker 2: many different companies building rockets. There are so many people

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Speaker 2: building satellites. They need places to take off, right and

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Speaker 2: this is the critical part is you need not just

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Speaker 2: the rocket it delt with the place in the infrastructure

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Speaker 2: to support it taking on. And so they will be

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Speaker 2: this demand and they're already is they're alread people say,

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Speaker 2: you know, we want to go do it, especially again

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Speaker 2: when you see the first one was successful.

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Speaker 1: How wonderful? Well, I guess it. Just in closing, I'm

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Speaker 1: keen to know, you know, what do you think that

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Speaker 1: this stares mean? For the future of launchers at the

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Speaker 1: Arnham Space Center and the Northern Territories. Position is a

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Speaker 1: plier in that space industry.

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Speaker 2: I think it's been solidified at twelve pm or twelve

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Speaker 2: am last night, or this morning, whatever day it is.

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Speaker 2: You know, this is this is a show that the

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Speaker 2: Arham Space Center is a spaceport and that you know,

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Speaker 2: in a few years time, you probably won't be covering

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Speaker 2: this as a news story. I'd be like, oh, yeah,

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Speaker 2: there's an other rocket launch, because this is going to

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Speaker 2: be the business of this area. And I think this

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Speaker 2: is a great thing. It's going to transform not just

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Speaker 2: the equipment here, but now imagine you have the infrastructure

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Speaker 2: of support people to come out and watch it, so

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Speaker 2: you have people to enjoy the beautiful country. In terms

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Speaker 2: of imagine, you know, we're getting into school holidays right now,

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Speaker 2: right imagine doing the school holiday trip to go see

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Speaker 2: a rocket launch in the Northern Territory. That is the

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Speaker 2: future for up here, and that future is, you know,

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Speaker 2: within the next few years. Because it started tonight.

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Speaker 1: How wonderful. Well, Brad, it is fantastic to speak to

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Speaker 1: you this morning. We really appreciate your time. Thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for joining us on the show

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Speaker 2: Take Care, Thank you,