Plans to build a launch facility for Russian Proton rockets in northern Australia have stalled after Aboriginal leaders announced their concerns about falling rocket stages on their land.
     Space Transportation Systems, an Australian-Thai consortium, wants to build a A$800 million (US$ 630 million) launch site near the city of Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory that would be used for Proton launches of commercial satellites.
     The preferred trajectory of the rockets would take them over Arnhem Land, a region that includes populated areas, hunting grounds, and sacred sites.
     The Protons would drop an empty stage onto this area from a height of 50 km (30 mi.). The stage would be "as long as a semi-trailer" according to company officials, and weigh 30 tons.
     Aboriginal leaders expressed their opposition to the falling stages but wanted more information about the project, said Tony Ryan, spokesman for Space Transportation Systems.
     "It's only in the early stages at the moment. We've spoken with all sorts of groups and people to gauge their feelings and will continue with the study before anything is decided," Ryan told UPI.
     Space Transportation Systems is working on a 12-month study to determine if the project is feasible and to meet federal and territorial requirements.

Cape Canaveral is still the preferred site for commercial space launches, but changes in the management and bureaucracy of the launch center are needed for the center to maintain its standing, attendees at a Florida conference said this week.
     Over 170 people in the launch industry met in Melbourne, Florida last week for a three-day Space Coast Launch Conference to assess the future commercial use of space at Cape Canaveral.
     A study released during the conference showed that the Cape was still the preferred launch site among a sample of satellite makers. The cape scored 81.9 on a 100-point scale, edging out Kourou, French Guiana, which scored 77.2.
     Both sites were far ahead of facilities at Baikonur and in China. The study was conducted by Via Satellite magazine and the Florida Space Business Roundtable.
     Cape Canaveral's low marks in the survey -- cost, regulations, and bureaucracy -- may yet drive away customers. Citing those problems as well as long delays for launches, John Perkins, vice president at Hughes, told Florida Today, "Commercial guys aren't going to come here to stand in line like that."
     Still, the number of launches at Cape Canaveral has increased in the last several years. Excluding NASA launches, the total number of launches from the Cape has increased from 12 in 1994 to a projected 22 in 1997, with nearly all the increase in commercial launches.
     However, the Cape still accounts for only 30 percent of all commercial launches, with Ariane's launch site in French Guiana taking a 60-percent share of worldwide commercial launches.