SA’s role in Artemis II moon mission

South Australians will play an important role supporting NASA’s Artemis II Orion mission, with local aerospace company Southern Launch to track the mission. From its Adelaide base, Southern Launch is helping NASA to assess the broader aerospace community’s tracking capabilities to support future Moon and Mars missions.

Artemis II will carry astronauts on a crewed flight around the Moon, testing critical systems ahead of future lunar landings. The Artemis II mission will be the first crewed flight of the Orion spacecraft around the Moon and the first crewed moon mission in 53 years.

Southern Launch will provide ground-based tracking support enabled by infrastructure at the Koonibba Test Range, near Ceduna. Southern Launch’s involvement focuses on passively tracking the Orion spacecraft, enabling the collection of high-quality tracking data without transmitting commands or signals to the vehicle.

This initiative builds on a previous effort in which 10 volunteers successfully tracked the Orion spacecraft during Artemis I in 2022.

“Artemis II represents a critical step in returning humans to the Moon and establishing a sustained presence beyond low Earth orbit.

Our participation reflects the growing role Australia can play in supporting deep space missions and the evolution of ground infrastructure required for cislunar operations.” – Lloyd Damp, CEO Southern Launch

Image: Southern Launch temporary telemetry station for the Artemis II mission. 

 

Participation in Artemis II also strengthens Australia’s contribution to global space exploration efforts and highlights the strategic value of southern hemisphere ground infrastructure.

 

“It’s exciting that South Australians are playing a role in this global endeavour.  

For the first time in more than 50 years there’s a mission to the moon and the team at Southern Launch will be tracking its progress.

This highlights the quality of the technology and the workforce based here in SA and the opportunities available to our state to play a role in future space programs.” – Chris Picton, Minister for Defence & Space Industries