MGMT7250 Semester 1, 2024

Case Study: Austral Launch Services

Map of Western Australia indicating Esperance, the nearest large population centre to the
Austral Launch Services complex.

A successful launch.

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Background:
The mission of Austral Launch Services is to provide rocketry services that change people’s lives.
Three broad strategies frame Austral’s operations:
i. meeting the rocketry services needs of the Indian Ocean region, and
ii. providing regular polar orbit services, while
iii. ensuring that Austral’s operations enable its people, the region, and the ecology to flourish.
The company leverages the features of southern aspect, stable weather, and low population
that position the Great Australian Bight as an economically viable platform for placing payloads
into polar orbit. For local clients drawn from the Indian Ocean region that location can also offer
cost-effective launches to equatorial orbits as well. The launch complex features two launch
pads, thus enabling two launches to be managed simultaneously, and to date there have been
37 successful launches, along with 2 early failures.
The complex is located near Esperance, Western Australia and with around 1,000 permanent
employees Austral is a significant employer in the region. The company designs and builds its
own line of medium scale launch vehicles for a range of payload needs and and thus requires
technical design teams together with build teams including electronics, engine, carbon
composite and 3-D printing specialists along with site management, communications, and flight
control crew. In addition there are support teams providing public relations, marketing,
maintenance, horticultural, and management services. Many of these functions can be
delivered remotely by staff living in major cities but to attract the many specialists that this
work requires on site Austral has expanded a new suburb near a local town to cater for up to
1,000 people with residences, schools, shopping, and transport services.
The launch complex is on a 380 hectare estate. Salmon gums line the banks of the Nuyts
Creek that flows under the main road at the northern boundary of the estate and out through
the southern boundary to the sea. Nuyts Creek flows for much of the year although it
sometimes runs dry during the summer, but even then birds, bats, and marsupials find a haven
in the woodlands along the Creek. The company has fenced the launch complex area for
security but ensured that the fencing is also predator-resistant (against foxes in particular).
The company’s ecological concern extended to selection of native plants for landscaping
around the buildings in the launch complex. There are several major buildings on site, including
the Vehicle Assembly Building and the maintenance operations hanger, as well as many smaller
ones. Some are not operated full-time, but only as as required; for example the Flight Centre is
only open before and during launches. The Visitors Centre and the administration block are co-
housed near the entrance to the complex, and the cafeteria and other staff facilities are located
in another building just behind. Grass is grown between the many buildings to minimise
erosion. Austral pumps around 50 Megalitres of water a year from bores to water these
landscaped areas. Across the region salinity is an increasing problem because of bores.
The company is committed to supporting the local region. Austral purchases foodstuffs and
services from local suppliers as much as possible. It provides work experience placements for
the local schools and apprenticeships to school leavers as well as tertiary study scholarships to
local students. It also offers tours of the complex to students every year, with some tours
focused on the scientific and technical technical aspects of the company’s rocketry work and
others focused on the company’s work to restore the ecology on the estate. The Visitor’s
Centre primarily co-ordinates the company’s social media presence during launches and hosts
visitors but it also co-ordinates the company’s participation in regional tourism events. Recently
it has been working with the local Aboriginal Corporation to jointly develop educational and
promotional materials that draw on local knowledge as well as Austral’s space expertise. The
Aboriginal Corporation has recently proposed a plan to grow bush foods on the estate, to assist
in restoring the ecology while also offering apprenticeship opportunities in horticulture. To
ensure reliable production this would require irrigation and thus further pumping of water, and
the water would have to be of good quality.

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The company supports the region’s Waterwatch, a community-engaged environment monitoring
initiative to preserve water catchments in the surrounding region. The collected data is
commonly used to raise awareness of local issues and to make informed-decisions in policy and
ground catchment management. In addition to providing some administrative support to the
Waterwatch program, the company collects data about the river from three points along the
river on the estate, and contributes the data to the Waterwatch data collection.
Waste management is a big issue for the company as to date it has relied on landfill for all but
the most dangerous controlled substances. There are two main waste streams, general and
specialised. General waste does not require special care for the whole waste management life-
cycle (storing, transport and processing), but may require limited care. However, Austral also
generates specialised waste streams that require more specific care from the generation point
to the final processing. The laboratories generates waste that includes dangerous reagents;
manufacturing of rocket componentry requires highly acidic or alkiline solutions as well as
generating carbon composite waste that requires special handling; and sewage from the estate
requires particular management as the local coastline is part of a national park. The company
has already put in place some circular economy measures to reduce general waste going to
landfill as the general waste categories have a greater opportunity to divert from landfill
without taking complicated actions. This is because industry-proven and commercially viable
solutions already exist for waste categories including: a) co-mingled waste, b) paper and
cardboard, c) paper mix, d) confidential paper, e) e-waste, f) organics (food-waste) and g)
recyclable metal. The company is aware that a key factor in achieving its targets is the
behaviour of the employees.
Rocketry generates signficant carbon emissions and Austral is concerned to be a ‘good citizen’
in ecological matters. In designing the buildings of the complex the architects used solar
passive design principles where possible. However, the summers are very hot and the nights
are cold in winter. With the need for temperature-controlled facilities for manufacturing,
Austral has significant building and infrastructure energy consumption. As well, gas is used at
many locations throughout the complex, including for heating and as a vehicle fuel for forklift
trucks and other specialist vehicles. Thus both electricity and thermal energy sources (some oil
and diesel but mostly gas) are used for heating, cooling, and refrigeration, as required
depending on the season of the year. The company is aware that energy generation and
consumption is a key contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and that there is a
common trend towards electrifying buildings and shifting to low-carbon electricity grids.
Rocket fuel includes kerosene but at this stage there are limited options for replacing kerosene
for this purpose. Austral is setting high-reaching targets for shifting all energy usage to
renewable sources or to offset carbon emissions.

~~~~~
Austral’s Ecological Plan is about to expire and so the company has set up a program tasked
with preparing a new Ecological Plan to achieve reductions in CO2 emissions, energy usage,
water usage, and waste. You have joined the program’s Analytics Team to reseach and prepare
data for planning and managing the projects to achieve these reductions. Each of the analysts
in the team handles different targets, and to start with you are offered the choice of Water
Management, Waste Management, or Thermal Energy Management.

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 DATASETS
WATER MANAGEMENT
Goal: Reduce potable water consumption.
Description of the data set
The dataset represent water quality from the last 10 years in three locations inside the Austral
launch complex. Following the flow downstream from north to south they are:
AUS010 – Nuyts Creek at the bridge
AUS020 – Nuyts Creek at the Vehicle Assembly Building
AUS030 – Nuyts Creek at the south fence

The water quality dataset has a few fields, classified as physical and chemical parameters.
Physical parameters are: a) water temperature, b) rainfall, c) turbidity, d) electrical conductivity
and e) water level. Chemical parameters are: a) Dissolved oxygen, b) pH, c) Phosphorus, and d)
Nitrate. The dataset also contains some observation notes to understand variations in the data.

WASTE MANAGEMENT
Goal: Reduce waste to landfill by 45%.
Description of the data set
The quantitative waste data represents waste generation on the Carrathool Foods estate for the
first six months of 2023. Hence, you can assume the collected data is up-to-date and
representative
The waste dataset has multiple fields: columns represent the waste by category over the six
months, while the rows represent the locations at which the waste is generated. The values are
in kilograms (kg). Blank values indicate no measurement of the category at that location.

THERMAL MANAGEMENT
Goal: Net-zero emissions for on-estate activities
Description of the data set:
The thermal energy consumption dataset documents the usage of thermal energy across the
larger buildings on the estate. This includes a mix of different building types: warehousing,
production facilities, offices, etc. The extracted data represent consumption over the last six
months. Hence, you can assume the collected data is current and representative.
In the dataset the columns represent thermal energy consumption, while rows represent the
gas meter readings at various locations on the estate. The values are in Gigajoules (Gj); 1 Gj is
equivalent to 27 litres of fuel oil, 39 litres of propane gas, 26 litres of petrol. Each of these is
the equivalent of 277 kilowatt-hours of electricity. Some data-estimated fields ( Estd ) are due
to meter reading issues.

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