Spanish company PLD Space launched its first suborbital rocket on October 6, and the company described the flight as a success despite reaching a lower altitude than planned. The company’s Miura 1 rocket took off at 20:19 (02:19 local time on October 7) from the El Arenosillo Experimental Center, a test site operated by the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space Technology in southwestern Spain. It flew in a suborbital orbit for 306 seconds before crashing into the Atlantic Ocean. The company said in a statement that it was working to recover the missile from the ocean.

During the flight, the rocket reached a maximum altitude of 46 kilometers. In its pre-launch press kit, PLD Space said the rocket’s planned altitude is 80 kilometers and flight duration is 12 minutes. PLD Space did not explain why the Miura 1 failed to reach the intended altitude, but described the flight as a success, saying the vehicle met “all technical objectives” regarding its performance.

“This test flight provided valuable data that allowed us to validate key design and technology elements that will support the development of our Miura 5 orbital launch vehicle,” said Raul Torres, PLD Space co-founder and mission launch manager. expression.

PLD Space offered Miura 1 for suborbital microgravity research, and this launch carried a payload for the German Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM). However, the company viewed the Miura 1 primarily as a technology demonstrator for the small Miura 5 launch vehicle under development. It is said that the Miura 1 will help test 70% of the design and technology planned for the Miura 5.

“We designed Miura 1 as a step towards accelerating the technological advancement of Miura 5. With the success of this mission, our team is ready to move rapidly towards our ultimate goal: the first flight of Miura 5,” said Raul Verdu. Founder and business development manager of PLD Space.

Ezequiel Sanchez, CEO of PLD Space, said the launch made PLD Space “the leader of the European space race” but that the company was unlikely to be the first European startup to reach orbit. The company is currently planning to launch the Miura 5 in 2025 from Kourou, French Guiana.

Some other companies are also planning early launches. Germany’s Isar Aviation and Rocket Factory Augsburg is developing the vehicles, whose first launches are planned for next year. In the UK, Orbex and Skyrora are also working on small launch vehicles, but there is no clear date for their first launch.

PLD Space says they focus on reliability rather than priority. “We’re definitely seeing a race to be first,” Verdu said during a Sept. 12 panel discussion at World Satellite Business Week. — But I think the hardest thing is to be reliable. That’s why we at PLD Space decided to develop a demonstrator. “We learned a lot from Miura 1.”

The company was hoping to launch the Miura 1 earlier this year. A launch attempt in late May was canceled due to strong upper-level winds. The second attempt on June 16 was canceled when the umbilical cord failed to separate from the rocket as expected and the vehicle’s engine caught fire. PLD Space concluded that the cable had been disconnected, but this was a tenth of a second later than planned; this was enough for the onboard computer to trigger an abort.

In late June, the company said it would delay its next launch attempt until at least September to comply with Spanish legal restrictions aimed at preventing wildfires. Source