Black Sky Aerospace gets approval to develop rocket fuel facility

Defence and space company Black Sky Aerospace has announced that it has approval to develop its site into an integrated facility for rocketry, including R&D, testing and manufacture.

In a statement on Wednesday, the company said its 2,500-acre-plus property in southern Queensland is used mainly for agriculture at the moment, but the new “Material Change of Use” approval will allow it to build a rocket fuel facility and associated infrastructure.

“This approval allows us to develop complementary capabilities on a single site so we can manufacture and test fire rockets without having to travel,” said CEO Blake Nikolic.

“That means we will produce the solid rocket propellant and the rocket motors in one location, then take them out and test them without having to go long distances for every test.

“This will dramatically reduce our cycle times for research, development, test, evaluation and qualification, ensuring the highest levels of quality control.”

Earlier this month Black Sky announced that it had become the first company in Australia to produce ammonium perchlorate, or AP. AP makes up about roughly 70 per cent of most solid rocket fuels.

The project was assisted by $497,750​ in funding from the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre. 

According to a project summary, the ability to make AP locally removes the need for Australian launch and defence companies to import the largest part of solid rocket fuel by volume, and they “ won’t have to send their products overseas to be filled with foreign solid rocket propellant and then imported back to Australia” again.

In February this year, BSA shared that it had successfully launched a 3.7-metre prototype long-range training missile, fired remotely from a custom weapon pod, all of which were manufactured in Australia

Black Sky is headquartered in Jimboomba, Queensland, and specialises in design, development, and manufacture of missiles and their components.

Picture: supplied

Further reading

Black Sky tests prototype long range training missile

Black Sky Aerospace closer to producing rocket fuel

Black Sky develops Australian missile capabilities