First Launch Scheduled In Late 2008

Don't be surprised if, two years from now... you're driving through the Australian Outback near Woomera and see a spaceship screaming higher and higher into the sky.

Flush off its recent advancement in the competition for NASA's $272 million COTS contract to launch cargo payloads, US-based Rocketplane Kistler is planning for its first launch from a site near the Southern Australia town to the International Space Station. The first launch of a Kistler K-1 rocket is now scheduled for late 2008.

As Aero-News reported Friday, Kistler is competing with Space-X... which also has a proof-of-concept contract with the space agency. Each company will launch five spacecraft before NASA decides which it will choose as the space agency's first contract space hauler.

The Adelaide Advertiser reports Kistler will begin construction at Woomera in October... with the goal of finishing that work by late 2007. The first K-1 rocket is set to launch a year later.

If all goes well for Kistler, cargo rockets may not be all those around Woomera will see being launched... as NASA will require the COTS winner to also demonstrate the ability to launch a manned crew into space.

And you know what that means: Woomera could one day be host to the first "Aust-ronauts" launched from the Land Down Under.

FMI: www.rocketplanekistler.com