Huelva, (EFE) the moment of engine ignition for causes that are being analyzed.
After the mission was aborted in the final phase on May 31st due to strong gusts of wind at altitude that did not guarantee safety, this morning, although further progress has been made in the process, it has not been completed either.
The company communicated on Friday the scheduled time for this second attempt. After the last meteorological sounding balloon launched at 14:00 hours confirmed that the meteorological conditions and the flight safety study of the mission were favourable.
As communicated through the broadcast in “streaming”, Sara Poveda, first employee of PLD Space, and Roberto Palacios, systems engineer of MIURA 5 -the reusable suborbital rocket that is intended to be launched in 2025 from French Guiana-, the cause, this time it was an “abort” at the time of engine ignition. The causes of which are being analyzed, although the team considers having reached that point “a success”.
automatic abort
Specifically, as reported by Raúl Torres, co-founder of PLD Space via Twitter, it is an “automatic abort”. That is, carried out by the rocket itself. Due to “the non-release of the avionics umbilicals -electronic system-, the rest were free and the engine at nominal thrust. 0.25 second margin”.
Miura 1 is healthy. We analyze the data to have more information ”, she concluded.
The launch has been coordinated from the El Arenosillo Experimentation Center of the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA). Nearby facilities where the rocket has been since April.
The chronology, a rather long and complex process, began on Friday afternoon. And shortly before 2:26 a.m., the “go on go” was carried out, a “crucial” moment in the chronology in which the different subsystems of the rocket were verified. As well as the launch base and the meteorology are in optimal situation.
On this occasion, the green light has been received from all the subsystems. And even the full countdown has been carried out. Although at 2:43 hours, just at the moment the engine started, the mission was aborted.
The company will look for a new launch window to carry out this first test of the return of the Miura 1. The technological demonstrator that will serve as the basis for the Miura 5.
The flight is expected to last 6 minutes in which microgravity and apogee conditions have been reached at an altitude of 80 kilometers. Finally, a team from PLD Space will be in charge of collecting the rocket in the Atlantic Ocean once the landing is complete.
The Miura 1 on the way to space
We will have to keep waiting to see the Miura 1, named after the wild cattle and as a symbol of the Spanish brand, become the first 100% Spanish private rocket to go into space. And, with this, value the work that engineers Raúl Torres and Raúl Verdú began in Elche (Alicante) back in 2011 with 3,000 euros, which today translates into three offices and more than 130 employees.
The main objective of this first flight is to verify the operation of key technologies in flight. Something that to date has not been possible. The thrust profile of the engine in flight conditions, the aerodynamic behavior of the launcher, the tracking of the nominal trajectory. The nominal behavior of all subsystems under real conditions and exposure to real space conditions.
This will allow “gathering the greatest volume of information possible for validation. And design of the technology that will later be transferred and integrated into the Miura 5”.
In addition, the mission will enable the ZARM Research Institute to study microgravity conditions by collecting information necessary to perform scientific experiments in future suborbital flights. EFE