NASA to launch 3 rockets from private Australian space port

By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — NASA is gearing up to launch a research rocket from remote northern Australia this month. It will be the agency’s first blast off from a commercial space port outside the United States. NASA and the launch pad’s owner, Equatorial Launch Australia, said on Wednesday three suborbital sounding rockets will be launched from the Arnhem Space Center on Indigenous-owned land near the mining town of Nhulunbuy in the Northern Territory on June 26, July 4 and 12. The launch site was chosen for its location in the Southern Hemisphere close to the equator. The 40-foot rockets will focus on the Alpha Centauri A and B star systems. A third mission would study the clouds of gases and particles in the space between stars.