Australia’s first locally built and made orbital launch vehicle, Eris, exploded only 14 seconds after takeoff in a test flight on Wednesday. Gilmour Space Technologies, the commercial company that designed and made the rocket, counted the mission as a success despite the failure.
The Eris rocket launched from a spaceport outside Bowen, a small town in northern Queensland, the first time an Australian-made rocket tried to go into orbit from within Australia. Designed to lift small satellites, the rocket was powered by four hybrid-burning engines.
A clip of the launch depicts the rocket leaving the tower of launch and hovering mid-air momentarily before vanishing from sight. Columns of smoke were witnessed billowing up from the location a few seconds later. Fortunately, there were no reports of injuries.
TestFlight1 — Liftoff 🚀
Today, Eris became the first #AustralianMade orbital rocket to launch from Australian soil — ~14s of flight, 23s engine burn.
Big step for 🇦🇺 launch capability. Team safe, data in hand, eyes on TestFlight 2.
(More pics and vids to come from the media.) pic.twitter.com/l9yPSUAIbR
— Gilmour Space (@GilmourSpace) July 30, 2025
The firm reaffirmed in a Facebook statement that the engines fired up correctly, and the first flight had 14 seconds of flight and 23 seconds of engine burn. “Of course I would have liked more flight time but happy with this,” CEO Adam Gilmour posted on LinkedIn.
Gilmour had already cited the difficulty of getting into orbit on the first attempt, commenting last February that it was ‘almost unheard of’ for a private enterprise to pull off the feat on its inaugural try.
The firm had last year delayed launches planned in May and early this month because of technical problems and adverse weather conditions. Gilmour was ‘happy’ that the rocket got off the ground at all, adding that the company had been happy if the flight had merely cleared the ground. Infrastructure at the launch site “held together,” according to their report.
The company is funded by private investors and has also received a AU$5 million ($3.2 million) grant from the Australian federal government to continue the development of the Eris rocket. That funding came after an even bigger AU$52 million deal in 2023 to assist with the growth and commercialization of Australia’s space industry.
