NASA's inaugural Northern Territory mission is over, but hopes for a space industry boom remain

Blue Douglas and his wife Evelyn have never been busier – and for two of the busiest businesspeople in north-east Arnhem Land, that's saying something.

Already, the industrious pair offer services to the Top End region from security and cleaning to seafood supplies, plus shooting drone and photographs for the occasional freelance media job.

They're also on hand to cook up pizzas at the Gove Peninsula Surf Lifesaving Club on Friday nights.

But it's their work at the new Arnhem Space Centre which has taken centre stage amid their wide repertoire and captivated Mr Douglas's interest as the space industry settles into the landscape.

They've been contracted as cleaners for the space centre: one among multiple local, long-term businesses in the Arnhem Land community to be offered work as the new industry sets up shop.

"Unlike other companies, [they've] employed a local population workforce," Mr Douglas said.

"All of the construction work onsite, electrical work, plumbing work and so on, has been done by local contractors.

"So the work is being spread around quite nicely."

Business owners like Mr Douglas hold hope that their hometown of Nhulunbuy, about 650 kilometres east of Darwin, could be on the cusp of a rocket-powered reinvention.

NASA wrapped up a historic launch mission in the region this week, shooting three suborbital sounding rockets spaceward from the Arnhem Space Centre, about 40 kilometres from the town.

The launches, which took place between June 27 and July 11, saw an influx of dozens of NASA staff to town along with curious tourists, who drove the dirt highway in to see the rockets for themselves.

Accommodation providers have been booked out for weeks, rental cars too, and Nhulunbuy's retail and hospitality businesses have been reaping the fruits of the added patronage.

"We've been very busy, more people – it's been hectic," Kamayan Café manager Eva Simpson said.

Could rockets replace mining?

The rocket launches come nearly a decade since Nhulunbuy's biggest employer, a now mothballed Rio Tinto alumina refinery, shut its doors and bid farewell to hundreds of staff in 2013.

Rio Tinto runs a bauxite mine near the town, but the company has publicly flagged that the operation will be ceased by 2030 – if not sooner.

East Arnhem business groups are keeping their fingers crossed rockets and the burgeoning space industry could have the longevity to sustain Nhulunbuy as it heads towards a post-mining future.

"The Australian launch industry is predicted to be worth close to a billion dollars over the next decade or so," Paul Dobing, the chief executive of Developing East Arnhem Limited, said.

"So I think the Territory and East Arnhem Land can definitely play a big part in that."

Already, the firm behind the Arnhem Space Centre – a start-up named Equatorial Launch Australia which raised the capital to get the project off the ground – has floated hopes of a future expansion.

But questions about its sustainability in the Northern Territory also remain.

'The hardest thing I've ever done'

The launch site sits on Aboriginal-owned land, and already, some officials have voiced concern that not enough consultation has been done about the potential impacts of the rockets on the region.

ELA's chief executive is a man named Michael Jones – a somewhat mercurial leader, who concedes he hasn't taken a day off since the spaceport plans were given the green light months ago.

The former Virgin Australia Airlines chief strategy officer said, in his view, setting up a spaceport in the NT and facing off against land and safety concerns while battling the tyranny of remoteness was "the hardest thing I've ever done".

"All [my past challenges] pale in significance to the challenge that we've faced in getting a space centre up in a remote area of Australia," Mr Jones said.

"[There are] so many interest groups who are vying for prominence, who want to jump on the coat tails, and, mostly with good intentions, don't realise how distracting they can be, and how hard it is to actually get consensus on a lot of things."

Mr Jones said ELA had found the process for gaining Aboriginal land tenure approval through the Northern Land Council to be arduous: "It's a process that really doesn't fit us very well".

NT can be make or break for new industries

New industries and exports have a mixed track record of survival in the Northern Territory.

One recent NT business success story has been the upswing of lithium mining, thanks to an increasing global demand for electric vehicles, and the need for the critical component in their batteries.

On the other side of the coin, a major cross-state prawn farm project, which had already attracted millions of dollars in investment from the NT and WA Governments, had its share price collapse earlier this year, and now looks unlikely to ever proceed.

On which side the Arnhem Space Centre will eventually land remains unknown.

But for the short-term, the indications are positive, with ELA suggesting it has other space companies waiting in the wings to launch, and NASA confirming it wants to return at some stage.

For Blue Douglas, it's not only about a finding a replacement industry for mining or pumping up the amount of tourism dollars spent in the town – although he has a firm belief rockets will do both.

He said it's also about captivating the imaginations of the 3,000 or so people who call Nhulunbuy home, something he witnessed firsthand during the launch campaign.

"Driving around town you could see quite a number of families sitting at the end of their driveways and looking that direction, just waiting for the rockets to go off," Mr Douglas said.