A Gold Coast based-start up has successfully test-fired the most powerful rocket engine ever to be made in Australia.

Gilmour Space Technologies has big plans in 2022 and beyond, hoping to fire a rocket into orbit within the next 12 months.

“The next 3-4 months, everything is coming together and we will have a fully assembled rocket on the factory floor by April,” CEO Adam Gilmour told Scott Emerson.

“We are working on an orbital launch site at Abbot Point, in north Queensland near the town of Bowen.

“We are working with the Queensland government and the federal government to get all of the approvals done, and we are hopeful we will get them done soon so we can start construction.

“And then if that all goes to plan, we will take the rocket up there … run it through some checks, it will probably take another 3-4 weeks and we will launch it after that.”

For now, the plan is to take satellites to space.

“We are going to develop bigger and bigger vehicles, by 2025 we want to develop a vehicle that is big enough to take people to space, that’s our goal,” he said.

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Images + video: Gilmour Space Technologies