Bland Shire Reaching for the Stars with Space Program Proposal

Published on 24 July 2020

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Australia’s premier Aerospace Company is investigating an opportunity to launch a revolutionary new “near” space program from the Bland Shire.
Representatives from Thunderstruck Space addressed Bland Shire Council’s July monthly meeting to discuss exciting plans to potentially build and launch stratospheric air ships from within the Bland Shire as soon as the end of this year.
Developed at a fraction of the cost of satellites, Thunderstruck’s developing StratoDrone technology has the potential to revolutionise telecommunications, disaster monitoring and mitigation systems such as bushfires.
The stratospheric airships will hover at altitude of approximately 23 kilometres and travel at speeds of up to 90 kilometres per hour through the stratosphere covering a communications footprint of over 400 kilometres in radius
When equipped with steerable cameras and infra-red technology, the StratoDrone can provide early identification and warning systems for bushfires and other emergencies and communications systems. These will be demonstrated within the next 12 months.
Unlike satellites, the StratoDrones can be brought safely back to earth for maintenance and repairs and relaunched after another unit is launched to the same position to take over operations.
Bland Shire Council Acting General Manager Will Marsh said Council is keen to partner with Thunderstruck to create and develop a revolutionary space facility in the Bland Shire.
“Council welcomes the opportunity to partner with Thunderstruck Space on the StratoDrone project and other exciting initiatives in the future,” Mr Marsh said.
“The program opens up exciting new opportunities for tourism and space tourism which will put the Bland Shire literally off the map!”
As well as the StratoDrone project, Thunderstruck’s team of internationally renowned space professionals are also working on a mission that could detect life on Mars within six years and an Australian first with their Lightning rocket launch program.
Council and Thunderstruck plan to hold a competition in the upcoming weeks which will give a number of lucky Bland Shire residents the opportunity to participate in the next test launch into the stratosphere with details to be posted on Council’s website and social media channels once finalised.

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