Where is NASA located in Australia

About 75 NASA personnel will be in Australia for the event, the prime minister said. The launches will be the first by the U.S. space agency from Australia since 1995.

NASA will launch three rockets within weeks from northern Australia for scientific research, authorities said on Wednesday, marking the first time the space agency will fire rockets from a commercial facility outside the United States.

The Australian government has granted regulatory approval for the rockets to be launched from privately owned Equatorial Launch Australia's (ELA) Arnhem Space Centre, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday.

"This is a really exciting project," Albanese said during a media briefing in Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory.

" The idea that NASA is directly involved here in Australia should be something of pride for all Australians." The NASA missions will investigate heliophysics, astrophysics and planetary science phenomena that can be only seen from the southern hemisphere.

The first rocket will blast off on June 26, while the others are planned for July 4 and 12.

About 75 NASA personnel will be in Australia for the event, the prime minister said. The launches will be the first by the U.S. space agency from Australia since 1995.

The Arnhem Space Centre was recently awarded a launch facilities licence and launch permit for the NASA campaign after a two-year evaluation by the Australian Space Agency.

The Northern Territory government has backed the project from its inception, investing A$5 million ($3.6 million) in ELA to develop the Arnhem Space Centre, the company said.

"This is a landmark occasion for the Top End," Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyle said, referring to the geographic region at the territory's north. "NASA is adding capacity and rocketing (the region) into the global spotlight for investors."

($1 = 1.3848 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Renju Jose. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

As NASA's exploration continues to push boundaries, a new solar sail concept selected by the agency for development toward a demonstration mission could carry science to new destinations.

The Diffractive Solar Sailing project was selected for Phase III study under the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. Phase III aims to strategically transition NIAC concepts with the highest potential impact for NASA, other government agencies, or commercial partners.

"As we venture farther out into the cosmos than ever before, we'll need innovative, cutting-edge technologies to drive our missions," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. "The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program helps to unlock visionary ideas - like novel solar sails - and bring them closer to reality."

Like a sailboat using wind to cross the ocean, solar sails use the pressure exerted by sunlight to propel a craft through space. Existing reflective solar sail designs are typically very large and very thin, and they are limited by the direction of the sunlight, forcing tradeoffs between power and navigation. Diffractive light sails would use small gratings embedded in thin films to take advantage of a property of light called diffraction, which causes light to spread out when it passes through a narrow opening. This would allow the spacecraft to make more efficient use of sunlight without sacrificing manoeuvrability.

"Exploring the universe means we need new instruments, new ideas, and new ways of going places," said Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Our goal is to invest in those technologies throughout their lifecycle to support a robust ecosystem of innovation."