China’s space startup nearly pulled off a landing test of its rocket, but the launch vehicle ran into a collision at the last minute, causing it to crash into the landing pad and burst into flames.
Deep Blue Aerospace launched its Nebula-1 rocket on its first altitude recovery test flight on Sunday, and attempted to return to the Ejin Banner Spaceport in Inner Mongolia. The rocket lifted off to an altitude of about 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the ground but misfired, leading the company to declare the test mission “completely unsuccessful,” according to a Deep Blue Aerospace statement.
The drone captured the test flight in vivid detail, resulting in a cinematic, two-minute video full of spectacular views of the launch. The video ends sadly with Nebula-1 hitting the landing pad and going up in flames, but even its failure looks cool, so it wasn’t a total loss. The dramatic video reminds us of SpaceX’s first attempts to test the reusability of its rockets, when even an explosion was seen as a partial victory. It appears that Deep Blue Aerospace may be drawing from SpaceX’s playbook, using these flaming displays for public visibility while taking a different approach than we usually see from Chinese space companies.
During descent, the rocket misjudged its landing altitude, resulting in premature engine shutdown. Still facing upwards, it hit the ground, causing a fiery explosion. “There are a total of 11 major test validation tasks,” Deep Blue Aerospace wrote in its statement. “In this flight test, 10 of them were successfully completed and one was not completed.”
Deep Blue Aerospace is one of several Chinese rockets aiming to launch and restore its own vehicles in an effort to match SpaceX’s success with its reusable, two-stage Falcon 9 rocket. Earlier this year, Chinese startup Landscape released its first stage prototype flight test the first reusable. The rocket reached an altitude of 1,000 feet (350 meters) and landed about 7 feet (2.4 meters) from its intended touchdown point.
Nebula-1 is 11 feet (3.35 meters) in diameter, slightly smaller than the Falcon 9 rocket, which measures 12 feet in diameter. Once confirmed, the rocket should be able to carry 4,400 kilograms (2,000 kilograms) to Earth orbit, and the advanced version can lift 17,000 kilograms (8,000 kilograms). SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket can carry about 55,000 pounds (25 metric tons) to low Earth orbit, and its Falcon Heavy rocket has a payload capacity of about 141,000 pounds (64 metric tons).
China’s rocket industry is booming after the Chinese government allowed investment into spaceflight companies rather than continuing to let state-owned companies control the industry. Companies like Deep Blue Aerospace are wasting no time in their efforts to improve rocket reusability, with plans to make another attempt at the Nebula-1 recovery test flight in November.
More: Sorry, Elon: Chinese Company Becomes World’s First to Launch Methane Rocket to Orbit
Source link
