Rocket Lab identifică cauza eșecului de rapel al lunii trecute Imprimare
International
Luni, 03 August 2020 13:17

Rocket Lab's Electron booster during an earlier launch

Rocket Lab's Electron booster during an earlier launch

     Space startup Rocket Lab experienced a notable hiccup in early July, when one of its Electron boosters was lost on its way to orbit, along with the seven satellites onboard. The company now claims to have pinpointed the source of the problem, and has gained regulatory approval to return to the launchpad later this month.

    Following a series of early mishaps, it has been relatively smooth sailing for Rocket Lab since first reaching orbit in January of 2018. It has gone on to deliver satellites to orbit for NASA, DARPA and the US Air Force, and even started to explore methods of recycling its rockets after launch .


So when the Electron booster failed several minutes into the second-stage burn during last month’s “Pics Or It Didn’t Happen” mission, it marked a significant setback for the relatively young company. A joint investigation into the cause of the failure carried out with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has, however, quickly zeroed in on the issue, which caused the engine to perform a safe shutdown and bring the mission to an end.

This controlled shutdown actually enabled Rocket Lab to continue collecting telemetry from the vehicle, with the investigation team since reviewing more than 25,000 channels of data. This revealed a “single anomalous electrical connection” as the issue, which remained secure throughout pre-flight testing but became “intermittently secure” during flight.

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