From The Advertiser Weekend Magazine, Saturday, 20 May 1995, pp. 3-4. SPACE RACE The Woomera Launching Pad * A group this week hopes to set Australia back in the space race for the first time in 25 years. Its last attempt at Woomera three years ago went up in flames. Rick Holden reports. The United States is renowned for its space program, with such successes as putting man on the Moon. The Russians, Chinese and Europeans also have had their fair share of the space limelight, sending astronauts into space and launching various satellites. This week, at what was once the biggest land range in the Western world, Australia will try to relaunch itself into the space race after an absence of 25 years. A joint Australian-European enterprise pulled out of South Australia's Woomera Rangehead in 1970. But the organisation behind the push, the Australian Space Research Institute, is grappling with an image problem. Call it independent or voluntary but don't call the organisation amateur. Based at a rented building within the Defence, Science and Technology Organisation in Adelaide's northern suburb of Salisbury, ASRI is redefining Australia's global position in space technology. On Wednesday and Thursday, ASRI will make its second attempt to relaunch Woomera Rangehead into the space race. There is a high probability that Ausroc II-2 could meet the same fate as its predecessor, Ausroc II, in 1992 - bursting into flames while still attached to the gantry. ASRI (pronounced Az-ree) wants the launch to be a resounding success. Firing up the ASRI members is a public perception that this is a bunch of overgrown kids playing with big firecrackers. The media has portrayed ASRI as amateur, mainly because it has been unable to pigeonhole this "volunteer conglomerate" of rocket scientists, engineers, university students and industry professionals. While the organisation's public profile is low, most Australians still remember that clear day on October 22, 1992, when Australia's only real rocket program apparently self-destructed. The 6m-high Ausroc II left its own mark on the Woomera lauch pad - a dirty, great, black one - when it exploded into a lethal cloud of burning kerosene and liquid oxygen and metal shards. The reasons for that tragedy are moot but the legacy of that accident lingers. "The public and, of course, the media equated that fire with failure and that enhanced the perception that we were a backyard organisation," ASRI spokesman, engineer and commercial lawyer Michael O'Donnell explains. "But we don't live or die by whether Ausroc II-2 gets off the ground. It is essentially a training vehicle to teach us how to handle liquid-fuelled rockets." In fact, Mr O'Donnell has compared the destruction of Ausroc II with the early space program of NASA in the US. "They had some appalling failures in the 1950s and 10 years later they were putting a man on the moon," he says. To the public, the 1992 project appeared from nowhere and promptly vanished into obscurity. The reality was far different. The Ausroc Group, as it was then known, had tasted success already on February 9, 1989, one year after the largely student-based group formed, when it fired its Ausroc I from Victoria's Puckapunyal army base. The far more primitive projectile reached 3.5km from the ground, peaking at 600km/h. So in late 1992, though despondent, the Ausroc crew treated the accident as part of the steep "learning trajectory" and began creating a phoenix, Ausroc II-2. About six months later, on May 17, 1993, the organisation ASRI was born. It was the result of a marriage between an eastern States' organisation, Australian Space Engineering Research Association, which, in Mr O'Donnell's words, was "all corporate structure and no action", and the Ausroc Projects Group, which had developed the technology but no structure. The driving force behind the organisation is a seven-man board: CHAIRMAN Mark Blair, who works at the Salisbury DSTO in the weapons system division; WARREN Williams, also from DSTO, works in the air operations division; SECRETARY Gary Luckman, an industrial chemist, who works for Sydney smallgoods firm Bushs' Pty Ltd; TREASURER Tzu Pei Chen, who is an electronics expert with Melbourne computer consultancy Ardebil; IAN Bryce, an engineer with Hawker De Havilland in Sydney; JOHN Coleman, also from Melbourne, who is an electrical engineer, and, IAN French, who is based in Canberra at the Australian Defence Forces Academy. The organisation also has an executive of 20 people and a paying membership of about 100. As many as 50 students from the universities of Adelaide, SA, New South Wales, Queensland and Southern Queensland as well as Monash University, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Sydney University of Technology and the Queensland University of Technology are involved. Apart from the "amateur" tag, another thing that irks members is that the media has largely ignored ASRI's objective - to develop home-grown technology capable of launching satellites from Australia. ASRI chairman and head of the Ausroc project Mr Mark Blair says his organisation is not "reinventing the wheel" but playing "catch-up" with technology which could have been available if Australia continued its involvement in rocketry after the British withdrawal from Woomera. ASRI's operations cross four states and involve as least half a dozen projects. Its Australis program is concentrating on small satellite technology and now is developing a 30 kg microsatellite. ASRI, with the Queensland University of Technology, is also persuing a collaborative microsatellite program with Indonesia's Institute Bandung and is awaiting replies on grant applications. The Scramjet Project, under way at the Queensland University, has the US looking over Australia's shoulder. Its objective is to develop and fly a supersonic-combustion rocket engine capable of propelling hypersonic flight vehicles. The engine would work at higher velocity, using air rather than an oxidiser. Mr Blair says Queensland University is one of the world leaders in this technology and has been involved in hypersonics research for many years. The fourth rocket, the Ausroc III Development Sounding Rocket, is already well advanced at locations around the nation - independent and irrespective of Ausroc II-2. Unlike Ausroc II, Ausroc III will be a guided rocket with on-board computers to actively control its trajectory mid-flight. Adelaide University has built and tested "cold gas thrusters" designed to stop the rocket going into a spin, and has begun designing the rocket's motors. Sydney University, with Hawker De Havilland, has made progress on the nose- cone design and test items are expected to be made withing months. Computer software also has been completed. While Ausroc II was probably worth about $100,000, Ausroc III is a far more expensive proposition. Standing 8.5m tall and 700mm in diameter, Ausroc III would have a peak altitude of about 500km - three times higher than the space shuttle travels. ASRI's final project is Ausroc IV - a satellite launch vehicle capable of placing a 30kg payload into orbit. Mr O'Donnell says ASRI has identified a niche market in the commercial launching of low-orbiting satellites - something Australia could have led the world in today if it hadn't destroyed the infrastructure at Woomera after the ELDO program folded in the '70s. "If Australia had got off its hands back then, this type of program could have contributed to our GDP," he says. "If we keep buying satellite services outside of Australia like we did with Aussat, our current account deficit will be stuffed." But before this can occur, ASRI must undergo a metamorphis. In May, 1993, the Federal Government granted ASRI approved research status, essentially making the organisation a tax deductable charity. It also meant ASRI could not persue commercial interests or make a profit. To exploit the technology, a commercial enterprise is needed but is far off. Essentially, ASRI's strength has been its ability to attract volunteer help and donated resources. The minister in charge of Australia's space program, Senator Chris Schacht, says ASRI has filled a void in the nation's educational programs on launch vehicle and satellite technology. The Federal Government allocated $9 million to the Space Office this financial year. ASRI receives Commonwealth financial assistance, being allocated $16,000 in 1993 by the Australian Space Council under its Public Affairs and Public Education Program. Last year, that was increased to $25,000. Mr O'Donnell says the Federal Government is getting a complete space program at a bargain-basement price. He is concerned at recent newspaper reports that the nation's space program may be wound back. So far, Senator Schacht has not been drawn into the speculation. Mr O'Donnell says that if that occurs, ASRI will become more reliant on its sponsors and public support. In 1992, the Ausroc program attracted big-name sponsors, such as BHP, Mobil and Comalco. This year, it has support from the Australian Space Office, BOC Gases, the CSIRO's Office of Space Science and Applications and the Australian Space Insurance Group, which is part of the Australian Aviation Underwriting Pool. The need for major sponsorship and community support is one reason ASRI has a radical plan before the SA Government involving high schools. It wants to involve high school students in experiments with Sighter rockets, while it targets university students to be involved in tests using Zuni rockets. The rockets were allocated under strict control to ASRI by the Australian military last year. Four Zunis and four Sighter Rockets will be launched from Woomera on Thursday once the Ausroc II-2 trial is completed. Counting Down to Take-off Win or lose in the space stakes, Ausroc program coordinator Mark Blair and his crew will never forget October 22, 1992. It was crisp spring morning for Woomera - comfortably warm, with just a hint of cloud in an otherwise made-to-order piercing blue sky. The 6.1m, shining, white Ausroc II stood beside its gantry, dwarfed by the giant United States/German "Rail Launchers", which in 1987 sent Black Brant rockets to study a Super Nova. The mood on the rocket range was expectant and optimistic rather than tense ... the countdown started. From the safety of the Blockhouse, a sound and shock-proof concrete bunker beneath the launching pad, launch control officer Tzu Pei Chen "pressed the button" to start a two-minute launching sequence. But Mr Blair recalls the team immediately knew there was a problem as nothing was being transmitted by Ausroc II's on-board computers. Despite frantic attempts, the launch wouldn't abort. Just before 10.30am, the blue sky above the launch site erupted into a fireball, with black smoke climbing skyward as Ausroc II haemorrhaged. Unable to battle the flames, the shocked crew could only watch from the instrumentation building's observation deck 500m away and wait for the heat to subside so they could pick up the pieces. An immediate post-mortem blamed an oxygen ball valve which failed, preventing kerosene and oxygen mixing in the motor. But that doesn't explain the onboard explosion, only why the rocket's motor failed. Mr Blair believes a compressed-air-operated piston or "pneumatic actuator" which opened and closed the oxygen ball valve was probably the culprit. But he says the explosion probably was ignited by oxygen vapor leaking into the kerosene tank - a separate problem. When fire spread through the fuselage, the plastic pneumatic hoses used throughout the rocket melted, preventing the launch cycle being manually aborted. Yesterday, a team of 16 people headed back to Woomera with the new, improved Ausroc II-2. The new rocket is almost identical to its predecessor except for several significant modifications, such as an improved ball valve system, a one-way valve between the two tanks, stainless-steel pneumatic tubing and a stronger rocket made with extruded aluminium tubing. On Wednesday, Ausroc II-2 will be launched. It is hoped the rocket will rise about 10km before a drogue parachute is deployed, followed by a main parachute on descent. New Chapter About to be Written Australia last had input in a rocket program in October, 1971, when the British fired the Black Arrow R3, carrying the experimental satellite Prospero into orbit. In 1971, Woomera rocket range, 500km north of Adelaide and suitably isolated from a world embroiled in a Cold War, was still a monument to Australia and Europe's thirst for rocket technology. Just 18 months earlier, the European Launcher Development Organisation launched its last Blue Strak rocket, the F9, and the program was being wound down. Today, many point to that historic launch as the final chapter in the story of this nation's space industry. Blue Streak was designed as an intercontinental ballistic missile but later was altered for the planned Europa-1 vehicle, capable of launching commercial satellites. The ELDO project was an ambitious joint enterprise between Britain, France, West Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Belgium which, like its Europa-1, never really got off the ground. When the Europeans withdrew, Australia was left with little more than memories of the hardware that once could be heard for great distances across the desolate, sloping plains - most was removed or bulldozed. From 1971 until 1987, when the joint German-United States program to study a super nova fired its Black Brant rocket, there were no significant launchings from Woomera, although smaller-scale weapons testing continues even today. It was a far cry from Woomera's heyday during the 1950s, when it grew into the biggest land range in the Western world. In his definitive history of Australia's space program Fire Across the Desert, Peter Morton says 13,000 separate trials were conducted at Woomera until the demise of the Blue Streak project. There were as many as 500 upper-atmosphere launchings, including 200 of the solid-fuelled Skylark rocket. Six satellites were sent up - two, the Prospero and the Australian-built WRESAT, were placed in orbit. Ironically, despite the billions of dollars poured into the development of rockets, such as the Black Knight and the Blue Streak, most of the successful launchings were done on the back of the more reliable United States-built Redstone rockets. [This is not true. The Black Knight had 22 out of 22 successfull launches of the basic stage. Only 10 Redstones were launched at Woomera, 9 for the SPARTA program, and one for WRESAT. SSP] Even Australia's entry into the exclusive international "space club" with the successful launch of the WRESAT on November 11, 1967, was on a Redstone.