Updated October 2007
The year 2007 is quite special year as it is the 60th anniversary of the formation of the Woomera Rocket Range formerly, Long Range Weapons, WRE, DSCW and (now called the Defence Centre Woomera).
My wife and I were unable to attend the four-day Easter celebrations at the Woomera Range. We had a special reason of course as this was our 50th wedding anniversary and my wife wanted to be taken to the tiny beautiful Pine Clad Norfolk Island situated in the South Pacific, a far cry from the gibber plains of the desert outpost in the South Australian Outback.
On our return we were pleased to be invited to the anniversary celebrations at Salisbury on the 28th April however and enjoyed recalling fond memories of our time spent during our working lives at both of these institutions. This was also the 60th anniversary of the setting up of the Salisbury institution formerly known as LRW (Long Range Weapons) WRE (Weapons Research Organization) DRCS and now DSTO. Many thousands of people have been associated with projects since those early days and attended those reunions.
The year 2007 is also the 50th anniversary of Sputnik and Australia celebrated this event by issuing a set of really great space stamps. My wife and I were pleased to be invited by Australia Post to the launch of these stamps and enjoyed the atmosphere of this special occasion.
This issue came too late for me to affix to my anniversary envelopes but I bought a selection for the proposed launches of the Hyfire project planned for the next five years.
I produced a limited edition of 125 commemorative envelopes for the Woomera 60th anniversary with a similar theme as I did for the 50th. This envelope as featured contains pictures of the more up to date launches of the projects carried out within the last few years.
15th June 2007
A Talos-Castor rocket combination propelled the Hycause scramjet engine to a height of approximately 450 kilometers today. The first stage (Talos) jettisoned after about six seconds, the second stage (Castor) took the engine to its experiment in the final seconds of its flight. This was a collaborative effort between the United States Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and DSTO Defence Science and Technology Organization. The University of Queensland Hypersonic Division was a Collaborative partner.
I produced a limited edition of 50 commemorative envelopes for this launch.
22nd May 2007
The Woomera Test Facility today received a coveted international honour from the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Woomera is one of only four non-US locations to be internationally recognised by the AIAA, who are known as the foremost aerospace organization in the world. This award represents a significant milestone for Woomera and complements local recognition of Woomera as a historic site by Engineers Australia.
I produced a limited edition of 25 commemorative envelopes for this occasion.
Lockheed Martin announced the successful firing of the Hellfire 11 Missile at the Woomera Testing Range on the 6th December 2006.These series of tests commenced in May 2000 under the auspices of Australian Aerospace, Australia’s Defence Material Organization (DMO) and the Australian Army.
I produced a limited edition of 25 commemorative envelopes for these trials.
A few minor projects had taken place since that time but non of any real significance that would be of interest to commemorative rocket envelope collectors. On the 17th May 1993 however the " The Australian Space Research Institute Ltd " (ASRI ) was formed as a result of a merger between the Australian Space Engineering Research Association Ltd (ASERA ) and the Ausroc Projects Group.
Since those early days ASRI members and University students have been kept busy contributing to numerous projects some of which have involved using the Woomera Instrumented Range for their launch activities. The Ausroc11_2 project in 1992 being one of the successes as reported on later in this article. They have continued by attending the " IEAUST Student Payloads in the October 1998 Sighter and Zuni rockets trials, The Kistler Space Endeavour Prize launch that had commenced in 1999 and in " WARP " the " Woomera Atmospheric Research Payload " small rocket experiments. The Warp trials followed with the University of Kent Canterbury England project team and ASRI members on the 29th / 31st Of July 2000. The opportunity to fly a payload of commemorative envelopes on these trials had been previously discussed. As there was so much interest generated by ASRI members and others in this project I produced a limited edition of 150 commemorative envelopes for this trial. One hundred of these envelopes were launched on a Zuni rocket with the University of Kent Canterbury England project on Sunday 30th July, and the remaining fifty were launched in the nose cone of another Zuni during the trial sequence over that weekends activities. These trials were a great success and were enjoyed by ASRI members and quite a large crowd of members of the public who had travelled the forty kilometers or so from the Woomera village and from the nearby (81 kms) Roxby Downs mining town. On the completion of the trials the English project team was allowed to accompany members of the recovery section to locate the rockets and recover their projects. This was a great experience for them to enjoy and observe the Australian outback landscape in an environment completely different to the one they had been accustomed to in England. At the conclusion of the project the envelopes were all recovered from the Zuni rockets and hand franked later at the Woomera post office on the Monday after the completion of trial activities. The Project Leader and team members from England were each presented with a commemorative envelope as a souvenir of their visit to Australia.
I am a member of the Space Topics Study Group of the USA and the Australian Space Research Institute as this helps me to keep in touch with the progress of space activities worldwide. When projects resume at the Woomera Instrumented Range in the future I will continue to produce a small limited edition of commemorative envelopes for the major trial series. These commemoratives had been produced for the launching of rockets, associated missile trials, and other similar activities carried out on the Woomera Instrumented Range. My own interest in this particular hobby started in the middle sixties when I was an employee of the then Weapons Research Establishment known as ( WRE ) where I lived and worked with my family on the Woomera Instrumented Range. I was a member of the " Woomera Fire Brigade " (now changed to Woomera Emergency Services). Employed in the carrying out of many duties relating to my position in the Fire, Ambulance and Airfield Crash Rescue section. These duties were carried out in the huge prohibited area within the Commonwealth Hill, Ingomar, Mabel Creek and other numerous sheep and cattle stations that surrounded the ' Woomera Instrumented Range'.
It was during this early period of my working life at Woomera that I commenced the hobby of collecting "Astro Philatelic envelopes " envelopes with a space-oriented theme. In 1976 however due to declining trial activity on the range I was transferred to the now (Defence Science and Technology Organization) based at Salisbury in South Australia. I still continued to follow my hobby however and early in 1984 I started to compile a more concise record of the variety and quantity of commemorative envelopes produced for the launchings of these rockets. I obtained this information from some of the documentation previously supplied to me by the various individuals who had produced these envelopes. I have since been able to contact other persons who were involved in the early production of these items, two of whom unfortunately have now passed away. It was fortunate that I saved this information because I now had some sort of back up record that I could use to check some of the older issues that are sometimes offered at auction sales. I had found a few variations when checking some of my recent acquisitions when the recorded date on the envelope differed from the actual launch date of the rocket. However this did not happen often and generally the envelopes seemed to match the information that was recorded on them. Some of the Universities who bought time and space on a project obviously wanted to keep a pictorial record of the trial series and produced a variety of these commemoratives. I have no knowledge as to how many were produced for each launch though as no one appears to have kept any records. However as I have been collecting them for nearly forty years I have gained a reasonable knowledge of the type of project that the envelopes were made for. So by checking that particular launch vehicle with the date of launch I can substantiate whether or not the detail on that particular commemorative envelope was correct. The following photos of the rockets, envelopes and text show a selection of the different types of launch vehicles and mention a little of their history. All of the rockets pictured definitely had commemorative envelopes made for them and were launched from the Woomera Instrumented Range between the years starting as early as 1964 and up to the present day. Since 1987 I have been responsible for continuing to produce a very small limited edition of some 50, 75 or 100 of these envelopes for most of the worthwhile activities on the range. There were of course many other launchings of rockets, rounds and missiles from Woomera in those early days but these were not made known to the general public as they were on the restricted list. Just as a point of interest a small amount of WRE'S (Weapons Research Establishment) new sounding rockets with two exceptions were named after Australian birds. Cockatoo, Kookaburra, Corella and Jabirus for instance. Trials had commenced in Woomera from as early as 1947 but as far as I know there were no envelopes made for any trial activity until about the start of the HAT and HAD trials of Upper Atmosphere Research Rockets in the early sixties.
I have updated my Island Lagoon site with pictures of the preparation of the site, several views of the Radar dishes, and the buildings and baker nunn camera. There were commemorative envelopes made for the ( Baker Nunn Camera ) and Radar Dish, " pictured " at the NASA Deep Space Tracking Station at Island Lagoon. These are followed by a selection of commemorative envelopes dated in order of their issue that were made for trial sequences which followed the setting up of this and other facilities on the range. I have split up the groups into sections under the headings of Australia 1,2, 3, 4, 5, and six to make them easier to access.
Click on the small image and a larger image will appear. When viewing the Eldo and Skylark pictures click on the small envelope and several more will appear it will then make it easier to load on to your screen. If anyone would like a better image for their records please email me. Also for those people who are interested in collecting these items I have quite a selection of all types of envelopes to trade or swap. Click here to Email me and I will send a bmp file.
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