The federal government has given the green light for a Taiwanese commercial rocket to be launched from regional South Australia this year. 

A testing launch pad has been developed at Whalers Way, south of Port Lincoln, by rocket-launching company Southern Launch, which has the approval to test six launches by the end of this year.

Taiwanese company TiSPACE will conduct a test flight of its Hapith I, a 10-metre, two-stage orbital rocket from the launch pad during this testing phase.

Southern Launch chief executive officer Lloyd Damp said the company was pleased to be partnering with TiSPACE.

"This is an exciting development on our journey to establish the first site in Australia capable of launching commercial satellites into orbit, enabling South Australia to start capturing part of the $5.5 billion global space-launch market," Mr Damp said.

A launch date for the TiSPACE rocket is yet to be determined by the partners over the coming months.

The Tawainese company is also considering bringing manufacturing of complete rocket systems to Australia.

Local pushback

Meanwhile tensions and further questions have been arising around Southern Launch's proposal to fully develop the launch site on an ongoing basis, past the trial period.

The company held community information meetings yesterday with some locals who were seeking further clarification on Southern Launch's recently released Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), while other residents staged a protest outside the meeting.

Penelope Taylor's property is adjacent to Whalers Way. She said there were some alarming details in the company's 3,000-page statement.

"The days of thinking, 'Let's just go out to Whalers Way' — who wants to go see it when you're seeing fuel tankers, barbed [wire] fences, security guards coming and going all the time? It changes the whole ambience of the place."

Water usage concerns

Mr Damp said it was hard to calculate the amount of water — or "water deluge" — required per launch, given each rocket would vary in size.

Southern Launch general manager Andrew Curran flagged a possible quarry or dam being built that could collect up to 30 million litres of water for the company's use. 

"The plan is to catch the water flow off the surrounding terrain and use that water," Mr Curran said.

He said the dam would have capacity to catch 30 million litres, but the company would not necessarily require that amount to conduct launches.

Community members also raised concerns on how the proposed development would affect visitors coming to the popular tourist spot and how many days the site would be closed off each year.

Mr Damp said calculating the number of days at this stage was like measuring a piece of string. 

"Initially it might be one, two or three weeks, it all depends on what the federal regulators recommend that we follow," he said.