Australia rocket launch company Gilmour Space has secured $217 million in a Series E funding round, including $75 million from the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation.

The NRFC’s preferred equity investment is matched by a $75-million investment from Hostplus, with additional investors including Future Fund, Blackbird, Funds SA, HESTA, NGS Super, Main Sequence, QIC and Brighter Super.

The funding injection takes the company’s valuation to more than $1 billion.

“This investment reflects strong investor confidence in our team and in Australia’s ability to build and operate critical space infrastructure at home,” said Adam Gilmour, co-founder and CEO of Gilmour Space.

“We’ve reached important technical and business milestones. Our focus now is on delivering reliable and regular access to space for customers both at home and abroad.”

The Gold Coast-based business is working to put together an ‘end-to-end sovereign space capability,’ which involves the design, manufacture, test and launch of rockets and satellites from Australian soil.

Gilmour’s first launch attempt, last year from the Bowen Orbital Spaceport in northern Queensland, ended in failure after only 14 seconds. But Adam Gilmour saw this as a win as he really wasn’t expecting the first launch to be fully successful, as is the case with many first-time rocket launches.

The new investment will be put to use to continue the development and qualification of its Eris rocket, scale up both launch vehicle and satellite manufacturing, expand the company’s test and launch infrastructure and boost its workforce (already more than 220 strong).

“Space technologies are fundamental to national resilience, economic productivity, and regional growth,” said David Gall, CEO of NRFC.

“Gilmour’s success will help secure Australia’s access to essential space services, strengthen our advanced manufacturing base, and create highly skilled jobs and opportunities in the region.”