A difference between the current space race and the one that took place in the twentieth century is that Now there is a commercial interest and economic benefits in view. This has caused companies and countries to have acquired great interest in developing rockets that allow to reach space and participate in that new economybeing the Australian company Gilmour Space One of them. This Wednesday launched its first orbital rocket, but with a quite limited success. The Eris, at 14 seconds to take off, was already on land wrapped in a cloud of dust.
The rocket, of 23 meters high and designed to transport until 305 kilos of payload to the low terrestrial orbit, took off from the Bowen Orbital Porton the coast of Queenslandaround the 00:35 This Wednesday, peninsular time. He rose about tens of meters, overcoming the launch tower of the same height as the Eris, He was briefly suspended in the air as they moved laterally and finally fell A short distance from the ramp that had just left.
Liftoff Completed, Launch Tower Cleared, Stage 1 Tested.
Awesome results for the first test launch. pic.twitter.com/eybnbgdz3l– Gilmour Space (@gilmourspace) July 30, 2025
It is not uncommon for a new rocket to fail in its first releases. Spacex accumulated three failed attempts with his first rocket, Falcon 1before successfully completing your first orbital flight in 2008. Not to mention Starshipwhich has nine test flights and does not seem too close to getting the first one in one piece. Thus, although 14 seconds are very few seconds and call ‘flight’ to what he did Eris It can be a bit exaggerated, the company shows optimism.
‘Today, Eris became the first orbital rocket manufactured in Australia to take off from Australian soil: ~ 14 s flight, 23 s engine ignition. A great step for our launching capacity. The team is safe, we have the data and we already think about the TestFlight 2 ‘, the company said in an X publication.
‘Taking off and entering in flight is a big step for any new space program. This was the first real test of our rocket systems, our propulsion technology and our space port and has shown that much of what we have built works’he said Adam GilmourCEO of Gilmour Space, in a statement.
According to the company, there were no injuries or ‘adverse environmental impacts’ as a result of Eris’s collapse. The launch ramp was not damaged either.
Why the Eris rocket remained only 14 seconds in the air
Eris is a rocket of three stages. The propeller uses four engines Sirius of Gilmour Space, the second stage only one and the third other engine called Phoenix. As explained by the CEO to Ars Technica, First a Sirius engine failedwhich still allowed the propeller to continue ascending. But Then a second Sirius didwhich already made it impossible to keep the rocket in the air.
‘I didn’t expect us to get to orbit, I never did. I thought that in the best case it would be about 40 seconds of flight, but I consider an achievement 14‘, he said Gilmour in the middle.
Another aspect that has been able to affect the performance of the rocket has been the long time that has passed before being able to launch it, due to the waiting for the Australian authorities to give the approval. Eris was ready since April 2024.
‘We had to wait 18 months To obtain regulatory approval for launch with the finished rocket, ‘he says Gilmour. When I was not on the launch platform for tests, the rocket It was horizontally stored inside a hangar by just over a kilometer of the beach, at risk of prolonged exposure to an environment with high salinity.
‘I was increasingly concerned because The rocket was becoming old. We had to replace many things during the tests and we were very worried that the more we expected, worse it would get. So I am very happy that this old vehicle has left the platform, has overcome the tower and the launch platform before it goes out ‘says Gilmour.