since 2022 Equatorial Launch Australia have launched 3 rockets for NASA from this space centre and it has been quite the achievement
the plan was to expand by building dozens more launch pads now that everything worked well

but for anything more to get done it had to be approved and then leased by the Northern Land Council, and they are-
"The Northern Land Council is responsible for assisting Aboriginal peoples in the Top End of the Northern Territory to acquire and manage their traditional lands and seas."
ELA are claiming the NLC have been dragging their feet, delay after delay, excuse after excuse
and after non stop delays and zero progress towards launch pad expansion the ELA have decided to say "fuck the lot of you"
no noise, no warning, they just clicked their heels together 3 times and fucked off, backing out of all all negotiations

overnight the ELA operations at the Arnhem Space Centre ceased
all local workers let go and buildings closed, any stimulus to the local economy also gone
this comes as talks between the ELA and the QLD government reach an agreement, and they have been given the green light to relocate all operations to Cape York and work with the QLD government instead, but why the move?
surely it cant be that bad?
"The decision came after the NLC failed to meet its own specified deadline for the approval of the head lease for the fourth time over the last 12 months in October, 2024," ELA said in a statement.'
of course the NLC claim all of this is lies, and that they were just doing their due diligence for 12 months longer than they themselves said they would, and will not be rushed into any agreement etc etc
"Our people will not be pushed into cutting corners for outside business timelines, nor can we jeopardise cultural obligations, our country, or the hard-won land rights of our people,"
this is silly, because the timelines were set by NLC, and they breached those deadlines 4 times over 12 months, so i dont even know where they were going with that one
what the NLC didnt account for was the ELA having contractual obligations to clients that would put the ELA in breach due to the NLA sitting on their hands for a year and not meeting their own deadlines they themselves set
the problem for NT and that region in particular is that Rio Tinto mining operations is ceasing as well and this space launch station was meant to be something to bring in money after the mine shuts, hence the expansion plans
but it sounds like the ELA was made promises and given deadlines by the NLC, and the ELA probably did a lot of business based on those deadlines
"yes NASA, we can launch 10 rockets for you by 2026, all launchpads will be operational by the end of 2025, that will be 10 million dollars for your slot in our launch schedule"
then the NLA delayed it so long, 12 months of continuous delays, that the ELA will be in breach of many of their contracts so the board of ELA iced the deal and is now moving to QLD where they likely already have full approval to build a fully functional multi launch pad station
sky news video on it