Gilmour Space Signs Agreement to deliver 50kg Payloads into orbit

At the Small Satellite Conference in Utah, it was announced that Australia’s Gilmour Space Technologies and UK-based launch broker Commercial Space Technologies Ltd (CST) have signed an agreement to offer a launch capacity of up to 50 kilograms. These commercial rideshare opportunities will be offered to global customers through CST and launched on Gilmour’s Eris Block 1 rocket from Australia.

Gilmour Space will provide the orbital launch service and CST will provide full oversight. This combination of expertise will offer affordable launch solutions to commercial satellite customers who need to access custom low Earth orbits.

“This is an exciting moment for CST. Our company accomplished several industry firsts for rideshare missions in the past, and we look to do the same on smaller dedicated vehicles in the future. The environmental and responsive advantages of a small hybrid vehicle like Eris will help us to achieve this, by offering even further value and flexibility to meet the demands of post-new-space era customers.” said Alan Webb, Managing Director of CST.

“As Australia’s leading launch services provider, we look forward to working with CST to offer more affordable and dedicated launches to small satellite customers globally. The Eris Block 1 vehicle is due to launch from Australia as early as this year and is a stepping-stone to our larger Eris Block 2 vehicle, which will be capable of carrying up to a tonne of payloads to orbit from 2024,” said Adam Gilmour, CEO of Gilmour Space.  

Eris Block 1 is a three-stage rocket and is propelled by Gilmour’s new, proprietary hybrid rocket engine, which was tested earlier this year.

Depending on the customer's requirements, a number of different services could be included. These services are: negotiating and constructing preferential terms of the contract, mission and documentation support, ongoing logistics support, launch campaign support, and various options for deployers or separation systems. From late 2022 customers will have access to 25° to 60° orbits, and from late 2023 60° to 145° (including Sun-synchronous) orbits.

Video credit: Gilmour Space Technologies.