An Australian designed and built rocket launched from the New South Wales and Queensland border has marked the nation’s re-entry into the space race.

Black Sky Aerospace CEO Blake Nikolic says the launch was a “critical step in Australia’s race to space again”.

“This rocket itself travelled around two times the sped of sound or Mach 2 and this flight went to around 30,000 feet so about the height of a commercial airliner,” he told Sky News Australia.

“Critically though, it got there in about 30 seconds so much quicker than any commercial airliner would normally get there.”