Australia third nation into space in 1967 with satellite designed/built in South Australia and launched at Woomera

Weapons Research Establishment technicians at Salisbury working in 1967 on the WRESAT satellite, launched (at left) with an American Redstone rocket.
Image courtesy Defence Science and Technology Organisation

Australia became the third nation in 1967, after the Soviet Union and the United States, to launch a satellite from its own territory with the WRESAT (WRE Satellite), designed and built at the Weapons Research Establishment (WRE) at Salisbury, north of Adelaide, and launched at Woomera in the state’s far north.

With University of Adelaide contributing part of the cost of the satellite’s experiment package, it took only 11 months to get the satellite ready for its takeoff from Woomera that played a pivotal role in the Cold-War space race, particularly from 1955 to 1980.

The WRESAT satellite came out of the WRE’s part during 1966 in a United States-led project, using rockets from Woomera, to investigate the physics of high-velocity warhead return entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

Ten American Redstone rockets (the same as used to launch the first US astronauts into space) were brought to Woomera but, when only nine were needed, three senior WRE officers realised the spare vehicle could make an ideal satellite launcher. They were excited by the possibility of extending the WRE’s upper atmosphere research with an Australian satellite.

The Americans offered the rocket to Australia and the US team offered to prepare and fire the Redstone rocket for the satellite launch by the end of 1967.

The federal government showed little interest but the minister of supply got approval for the satellite. NASA and ELDO (European Launcher Development Organisation) provided free tracking of the satellite that WRESAT was a significant technical achievement and showed the WRE’s level of expertise in being able to design and construct a satellite in so short a time.

The satellite, a 45 kilogram cone, was launched at Woomera and circled the Earth on a nearly polar course, until it entered the atmosphere again, after 642 revolutions in 1968, over the Atlantic Ocean. The battery-operated satellite sent data during its first 73 orbits of the Earth.