杏吧原创

AUSTRALIA could have two spaceports on its soil by the end of the century.
According to the two companies involved, the only remaining hurdle before
construction is the completion of environmental impact statements.

Both the Asia-Pacific Space Centre (APSC) and Space Transportation Systems
(STS) of Brisbane have found launch sites. APSC is looking at the Cape York
Peninsula in Queensland, while STS has an isolated site near Darwin in
Australia鈥檚 Northern Territory.

Both companies are planning to use Russian rockets. STS wants to use Proton
鈥淢鈥� rockets and APSC has chosen the Soyuz launcher鈥攖he reliability of the
Russian rockets should keep down payload insurance costs. Both companies say
that the launches could be held up if the Russians cannot build enough rockets
to keep up with demand.

APSC is a consortium of Australian, US and Korean companies and is headed by
Australian businessman David Kwon. He claims building work will be completed
within two years and that APSC will be launching rockets by late 1999. Kwon says
APSC could launch three rockets a week. European launch firm Arianespace
currently manages one a month.

Kwon claims companies planning to put flocks of satellites in low Earth orbit
for global mobile phone networks will still need launch sites come the end of
the century. 鈥淐ompanies have been busy arranging financing and satellites, but
the one thing they haven鈥檛 been doing yet is arranging launch facilities,鈥� says
Kwon.

The two launch sites in northern Australia both lie within 15 degrees of the
equator鈥攐nly Arianespace鈥檚 launch site in French Guiana is closer. The
nearer a launch site is to the equator the less fuel it takes to put a payload
in space. STS claims a Proton rocket launched from Australia could carry a
7-tonne payload鈥攐ver a tonne more than is possible from the rocket鈥檚
current launch site in Kazakhstan.