The Arnhem Space Centre will launch NASA rockets for the first time beginning later this month, which will be the first launches from the US Space agency from a commercial facility outside of the USA.

Three scientific suborbital sounding rockets will be launched between 26 June and 12 July from the centre, which is owned and run by Equatorial Launch Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

“We can trace Australia’s celebrated connection to the space industry back to the 1950s. As a nation, we have to build on that legacy. This project will bring together the global and local industry to take Australia’s space sector into a new era,” he said.

Mr Albanese was in Darwin briefly on Wednesday to acknowledge the project.

It will be NASA’s first launch of a rocket from a commercial facility outside of the US, and will also be the space agency’s first time launching a rocket from Australia since 1995 when send-offs were made from the Royal Australian Air Force Woomera range, Mr Albanese said.

And he said, there would be an estimated 75 NASA employees in the country for the series of launches, which aims to investigate heliophysics, astrophysics and planetary science phenomena only observable from the southern hemisphere.

Australian Space Agency head Enrico Palermo said the upcoming launch will further cement the country’s reputation among the “global space players”.

“The growth of launch-related activities in Australia is helping to open up the full value chain of space activities, which will grow the sector and create new businesses and job opportunities here at home,” Mr Palermo said. “This launch campaign extends and strengthens Australia’s long-standing partnership with the United States in the peaceful uses of outer space.”

Arnhem Space Centre sits on the Dhupuma Plateau near Nhulunbuy on Gumatj lands, and Mr Albanese said all recovered motor cases and payloads at the site will be sent back to the US as part of NASA’s ‘clean range policy’.