A European Startup’s Spacecraft Made It to Orbit. Now It’s Lost at Sea
A European company This seeks to develop orbital spacecrafts for freight, and finally humans, took a step forward this week with a test flight which saw its mission possible the possible vehicle and successfully steal in orbit before making a return to the atmosphere of the earth.
However, after having encountered a “problem”, the exploration company lost contact with its spacecraft a few minutes before the touch in the ocean.
In an update Tuesday morning on LinkedIn, the company described the test flight as partial success and partial failure.
“The capsule was successfully launched, propelled the useful charges nominally in orbit, stabilized after separation from the launcher, reinstated and restored communication after having blackened,” the company said in a press release. “We are always investigating deep causes and will soon share more information. We apologize to all our customers who have entrusted us with their useful expenses.”
Maybe it was the parachutes
The restoration of communications with the spacecraft after the electricity period suggests that the vehicle has gone through the most difficult thermally part of the start of the earth’s atmosphere and may have validated the manipulation and capacity of the spaceship to resist maximum heating.
Following this, according to the company’s calendar for the possible mission, the parachutes of the capsule had to deploy at a speed between Mach 0.8 and Mach 0.6. The parachutes were selected for their “proven flight heritage”, said the company, and were bought from airborne systems based in the United States, which provides parachutes used by the SpaceX Dragon, the Starlinener de Boeing and other spaceships.
Since when the spaceship was lost, it seems very likely that there was a problem with the deployment of drugs or the main parachutes.
The possible mission was a demonstration vehicle of 2.5 meters in diameter which was among the largest useful charges launched Monday afternoon on the mission of the transporter 14 of SpaceX of the Vandenberg Space Force base in California. The mission has sought to test four primary spatial flight zones: structural performance in orbital flight, surviving reintegration, autonomous navigation and recovery in real conditions. He has clearly failed in this final task, recovering the vehicle within three days to return the useful charges embedded to customers.
Bring together an aggressive chronology
It is refreshing to have such a clear and concise communication of a space company, in particular the recognition that a flight was a partial failure, in the hours following the launch. And it is not surprising that there were technical challenges on a vehicle that has been set up fairly quickly and at low cost.
In an interview with ARS last November, the founder of the exploration company, Hélène Huby, said that a possible mission was developed at a cost of around $ 20 million in 2.5 years, in addition to $ 10 million for the launch of carpooling on the Falcon 9 rocket.
At the time, she said that possible mission was on the right track to launch this summer and that the company met this calendar.
Given the potential problems with the parachute system or other problems close to the touchdown, it is possible that the exploration company can pilot another mission to demonstrate the sub-scales before moving on to the development of its full-size NYX cargo spaceship.
