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Tania Admin
Bugger a trip to Bali I'm going to the moon 
DARWIN could soon become the space capital of Australia.
The NT News can reveal the NT Government has been working with an investor who is negotiating a deal that could see Darwin become the first place in Australia from which space vehicles are launched.
The Australian-based investor, who cannot be named, is close to purchasing the Sea Launch spacecraft maritime launch service.
The megastructure, currently based in California, is made up of three parts; the clean room — which is the processing facility based on land, and the two-vessel rocket launcher.
Rockets are made in the clean room, carried on the Commander ship to sea and launched at sea from the launch platform, Odyssey.
Mr Elferink told the NT News a lot of work had been done to attract a space industry to the Territory. “Darwin is perilously close to the equator which means (the company) don’t have to travel far at all — so for Sea Launch to travel (from Long Beach) they have to stay at sea for one-and-a-half or two months ... (which makes it a) very expensive exercise,” he said.
“For Darwin, you might be at sea for six hours ... which makes Darwin very, very attractive.” Mr Elferink said the investor was looking at setting up in other destinations but had since ruled them out, so if he was successful in purchasing the rocket launcher the NT was sure to be its home.
Source NT News: http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/north...y/news-story/dd89fb368bbcdc37a0899c47d2e98340
DARWIN could soon become the space capital of Australia.
The NT News can reveal the NT Government has been working with an investor who is negotiating a deal that could see Darwin become the first place in Australia from which space vehicles are launched.
The Australian-based investor, who cannot be named, is close to purchasing the Sea Launch spacecraft maritime launch service.
The megastructure, currently based in California, is made up of three parts; the clean room — which is the processing facility based on land, and the two-vessel rocket launcher.
Rockets are made in the clean room, carried on the Commander ship to sea and launched at sea from the launch platform, Odyssey.
Mr Elferink told the NT News a lot of work had been done to attract a space industry to the Territory. “Darwin is perilously close to the equator which means (the company) don’t have to travel far at all — so for Sea Launch to travel (from Long Beach) they have to stay at sea for one-and-a-half or two months ... (which makes it a) very expensive exercise,” he said.
“For Darwin, you might be at sea for six hours ... which makes Darwin very, very attractive.” Mr Elferink said the investor was looking at setting up in other destinations but had since ruled them out, so if he was successful in purchasing the rocket launcher the NT was sure to be its home.
Source NT News: http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/north...y/news-story/dd89fb368bbcdc37a0899c47d2e98340
