This is John Batchelor, conversation with my good colleague Bob Zimmerman about the future,

about spaceports in the continent of Australia.

The proposal now looks for three spaceports on the coastlines, the coast of South Australia, the coastal

Queensland, the coast of Northern Territory.

The road ahead, of course, is regulation and satisfying Canberra. Bob explains the challenge but the

ambition. Spaceports for the 21st, 22nd, 23rd in in consideration of using Australia as a launch point.

And perhaps the opportunity to compete with other continents will mean more cooperation on all levels.

That is a dream.

This is Bob Zimmerman speaking of the present planning for three spaceports in Australia?

Well according to one of the spaceports, the one on the south coast of Australia in South Australia.

They are getting ready for their first suborbital test launch in end of April, early May. That's what they say.

I would tell you that the other two spaceports

also have been trying to get their permitting

taken care of to do launches as well.

The difference, all three of them have different approaches. Equatorial launch Australia on the north and southern launch on the south are

space ports designed to allow almost any

company to come in and use the facility to launch their rockets.

Balance Spaceport is a specific space force for a specific company.

In all three cases they are trying to get their licensing and that's where we get into the unknowns

about Australia.

There are strong indications that its regulatory state is as bad as the United Kingdom,

taking forever to issue licenses private launches.

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