French rocket company, Sirius Space Services (Sirius), has signed a historic contract with Equatorial Launch Australia (ELA) for a multi-year, multi-launch campaign from the Arnhem Space Centre (ASC) at the World Space Business Week conference in Paris, France overnight.
The agreement will see Sirius become a ‘Resident Launcher’ at the spaceport from 2025, taking up residency at their own dedicated Space Launch Complex (SLC) for the extended term of their multi-year contract. Sirius has elected to take up a ‘full service’ solution to be provided by ELA, taking advantage of the full suite of launch and mission support services and facilities available at the remote but ‘cutting edge’ commercial East Arnhem Land spaceport.
The campaign will begin with the development and test flights of SIRIUS 1 in 2026 followed by launches of the larger SIRIUS 13 (800kg payload capacity) in 2027.
The flexibility to access a range of orbits, including medium and low inclination orbits, SSO and equatorial, along with ELA’s full-service offering were the key reasons behind the decision by Sirius to sign with ELA for launches from the ASC.
The deal significantly emphasizes the desirability and market-fit of launching from the Arnhem Space Center and the industry leading advanced engineering and technology solutions and launch services provided by ELA.
“I’m delighted and excited to announce this contract with Sirius Space Services today,” said ELA’s Group CEO Michael Jones. “Sirius will become the second resident launcher at the Arnhem Space Center which means they will leverage ELA’s advanced commercial spaceport concept, taking advantage of our comprehensive suite of launch solutions, innovative commercial offering and the best customer service and support to increase efficiency, safety, mission assuredness and commercial benefit to Sirius”.
The agreement marks the second ‘Resident Launcher’ contract for ELA; further validating ELA’s innovative business model. Several other contracts and commercial alliance deals are expected to be announced in the very near future.
Mr. Jones stated that in addition to contracted rocket companies Innospace and Sirius, inbound enquiry relating to ELA’s services has been ‘hot’ meaning the Space Launch Complexes are filling fast. “We are currently in the final stages of negotiation with three more launchers about our resident launch contracts, so our remaining orbital complexes are filling fast. The feedback we are receiving is that our comprehensive, full-service approach is really resonating with these rocket companies and their payload customers and that is why we’ve developed our new tagline: ‘You build the rockets… we’ll take care of the rest’™️” said Jones.