A plan to build a permanent rocket launch facility at Whaler’s Way in South Australia could push threatened bird species to extinction, conservationists said.
Southern Launch, an Adelaide-based start-up, operates the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex in a privately owned conservation area at the tip of the Eyre Peninsula.
The facility is expected to help grow the infant Australian space industry, with a temporary launchpad at the site hosting a test firing of the Hapith I sub-orbital rocket this month by Taiwanese company Taiwan Innovative Space (TiSPACE).
However, plans to build permanent facilities in the area have been challenged by environmental groups, including the Nature Conservation Society of South Australia (NCSSA), which says the launch site would wipe out prime habitat for a sub-species of southern emu-wren, unique to the Eyre Peninsula, and the western whipbird.
When operating on a commercial scale, the site is expected to host 35 launches a year.
NCSSA president Patrick O’Connor said it would be “another nail in the coffin” for the threatened species.
“We’ve already lost more habitat than this [southern emu-wren] species can reasonably tolerate,” O’Connor said. “If we lose this site, it’s just a matter of time. They’ll either hang on in the state they’re in, but if a big site like Whaler’s Way goes the risk is extinction.”
O’Connor, an ecologist with the University of Adelaide, said there was also a risk from bushfires, which would be made worse by the possibility of mechanical malfunction.
The attempted launch of the Hapith-I rocket on Sept. 17 ended when an internal fault caused the vehicle to catch fire. While TiSPACE has since retired the Hapith I rocket, it still has permission to perform two further tests by the end of 2021.
Under Southern Launch’s current expansion plans, the project will involve the construction of two permanent launch pads and support infrastructure, including assembly facilities, fuel storage tanks, power generators, offices, road transport access and blast houses.
The work will involve clearing 23.76 hectares of vegetation, the construction of firebreaks and access roads, while the largest of two launch pads — currently known as “site A” — is planned for an area of prime habitat for the southern emu-wren.
In a statement, Southern Launch chief executive Lloyd Damp said the company was aware of concerns about the impact on wildlife and was in the process of relocating the launch pad.
“These issues were brought forward by our ecology subject matter experts, with whom we are working closely with as part of our commitment to minimizing the environmental impacts of our operations at Whalers Way,” Damp said.
The expansion is being reviewed by both the South Australian government and the federal environment department under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
PlanSA has yet to release the results of a community consultation that closed this month.
As the southern emu-wren and the western whipbird are on a threatened species list, the proposal will also need to receive approval from Australian Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley, before it can go ahead.
‘THEY KILLED HOPE’: Four presidential candidates were killed in the 1980s and 1990s, and Miguel Uribe’s mother died during a police raid to free her from Pablo Escobar Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe has died two months after being shot at a campaign rally, his family said on Monday, as the attack rekindled fears of a return to the nation’s violent past. The 39-year-old conservative senator, a grandson of former Colombian president Julio Cesar Turbay (1978-1982), was shot in the head and leg on June 7 at a rally in the capital, Bogota, by a suspected 15-year-old hitman. Despite signs of progress in the past few weeks, his doctors on Saturday announced he had a new brain hemorrhage. “To break up a family is the most horrific act of violence that
HISTORIC: After the arrest of Kim Keon-hee on financial and political funding charges, the country has for the first time a former president and former first lady behind bars South Korean prosecutors yesterday raided the headquarters of the former party of jailed former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol to gather evidence in an election meddling case against his wife, a day after she was arrested on corruption and other charges. Former first lady Kim Keon-hee was arrested late on Tuesday on a range of charges including stock manipulation and corruption, prosecutors said. Her arrest came hours after the Seoul Central District Court reviewed prosecutors’ request for an arrest warrant against the 52-year-old. The court granted the warrant, citing the risk of tampering with evidence, after prosecutors submitted an 848-page opinion laying out
STAGNATION: Once a bastion of leftist politics, the Aymara stronghold of El Alto is showing signs of shifting right ahead of the presidential election A giant cruise ship dominates the skyline in the city of El Alto in landlocked Bolivia, a symbol of the transformation of an indigenous bastion keenly fought over in tomorrow’s presidential election. The “Titanic,” as the tallest building in the city is known, serves as the latest in a collection of uber-flamboyant neo-Andean “cholets” — a mix of chalet and “chola” or Indigenous woman — built by Bolivia’s Aymara bourgeoisie over the past two decades. Victor Choque Flores, a self-made 46-year-old businessman, forked out millions of US dollars for his “ship in a sea of bricks,” as he calls his futuristic 12-story
FORUM: The Solomon Islands’ move to bar Taiwan, the US and others from the Pacific Islands Forum has sparked criticism that Beijing’s influence was behind the decision Tuvaluan Prime Minister Feletei Teo said his country might pull out of the region’s top political meeting next month, after host nation Solomon Islands moved to block all external partners — including China, the US and Taiwan — from attending. The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders’ meeting is to be held in Honiara in September. On Thursday last week, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele told parliament that no dialogue partners would be invited to the annual gathering. Countries outside the Pacific, known as “dialogue partners,” have attended the forum since 1989, to work with Pacific leaders and contribute to discussions around
RSS