A Victorian company has been working shoulder-to-shoulder with NASA rocket scientists to help launch science experiments into space from the Northern Territory.
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DW Controls, from Delacombe, in Ballarat, the Central Highlands of Victoria, was tapped to help build support components for Equatorial Launch Australia's launch site at Nhulunbuy's Arnhem Space Centre - its third launch was Monday night, and it went off without a hitch.
WATCH THE LAUNCH HERE:
"It's just one of those pinch-me moments to be involved in," DW's general manager Jeremy White said.
"If we didn't do what we did, the rocket wouldn't have launched."
The business was part of a set of Australian companies which helped build the site and set-up the launch components - DW installed the electrical power plant and other installations, including parts of the launch pad itself.
"We've done the 1:1 scale of the whole power assist system at our premises in Kennedys Drive, and around April or May we pulled it apart, we basically Ikea flat-packed it, and shipped it up to Nhulunbuy.
"We met up with it toward the end of May, then we put it all together and that was the part of the power plant all delivered on time and on budget.
"I managed to be home for about two weeks then got a call to go back up there and assist them with the NASA setup - they needed the power to run the different voltages at different frequencies for the NASA trailers and equipment, so we were heavily involved with the setup for that as well."
Monday's launch was for a program investigating space near the Southern Cross - specifically, stars from the Alpha Centauri constellation.
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The site was chosen as the stars cannot be seen from the United States, with NASA running these experiments - looking at ultraviolet light - for the first time.
Rockets launched from the Arnhem Space Centre carried instruments to an altitude of about 250km, according to NASA, before descending by parachute and landing southwest of the launch site.
The Arnhem Space Centre is about 13 hours' drive from Darwin, and Mr White was there for the first launch a few weeks ago.
"I well and truly saw that one - I would have been 800 or 900m away from it, and it was quite awesome to see," he said.
WATCH THE FIRST LAUNCH HERE:
"You see the glow when it ignites, you feel the shockwave, then you hear the explosion, it's quite awesome to be involved and be on-site for it."
The successful rocket launches were promising for Australia's still-young space industry, he added.
"There are a lot of things happening in the next 12 months that will certainly put Australia on the map for launching rockets in the southern hemisphere," he said.
"I don't see that our time with ELA is finished with these three rockets, we've got a number of meetings going forward and we've got a few other ideas to bring to the table, it's an evolving site at the moment.
"I really hope Australia and the universities here jump on board - maybe a university goes and speaks to ELA, (and says) "we want to put a university on-site", so they can actually start to learn how to do rockets.
"I was expecting a different set up - there's a lot we've used that we can't disclose, and it's sort of a surreal moment that you're walking around talking to the guys from NASA, we worked side-by-side with them, they were awesome people to work with."
