An oddity in space history is that Australia, a stable democracy with plenty of low-latitude sites, has never had much of a space launch industry. The U.S. launches to low-inclination orbits from Cape Canaveral, 28 deg. from the equator, to get free velocity from the Earth's rotation. But Australia has territory within 11 deg. of the equator.Finally, construction is due to begin in April on an equatorial space launch base in northern Australia. Initial subor-bital shots are planned for this year and orbital launches for 2020, according to the company developing the spaceport, Equatorial Launch Australia (ELA).ELA is one of two companies that appear to be most advanced with plans for building spaceports in Australia. The other, Southern Launch, is aiming at the complementary market of launching into polar and sun-synchronous orbits-from the southern edge of the continent.
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