LAS VEGAS — ABL Space Systems is moving into the final phases of preparations for the second launch of its RS1 rocket after the company’s first launch failed in January.
In an update posted Oct. 25, Harry O’Hanley, chief executive of ABL, said the company has completed a test of the RS1 rocket it called “dock dress” at the Port of Long Beach in California. That was a dress rehearsal of launch preparations involving the rocket and its GS0 ground support equipment.
Both the RS1 rocket and GS0 system feature upgrades since the inaugural launch failed seconds after liftoff Jan. 10 from Kodiak Island, Alaska. The company said a week after the launch that the rocket lost power about 10 seconds after liftoff, shutting down engines and causing it to crash near the launch pad.
At the time, ABL said the loss of power was linked to a fire in the rocket’s engine compartment, but didn’t say how the fire started. O’Hanley wrote that the leading theory that emerged from the company’s investigation is that the fire is linked to the design of the launch mount, a part of the GS0 system that raises the rocket to the vertical position and lowers it back to the horizontal.
The launch mount was made to be as compact as possible to allow it and other GS0 elements to fit into shipping containers. “While this made transport simple, it resulted in the rocket being held close to the ground,” he wrote.
However, that meant there was limited space between the engines and the ground so that, at engine ignition, there was restricted flow of exhaust. “This caused plume recirculation and drove pressures and temperatures beneath the rocket to exceed the RS1 base heat shield design capability,” he wrote. Hot gases broke through the heat shield and caused the engine compartment fire.
The company has redesigned the launch mount to increase its height and exhaust area to prevent the exhaust recirculation problem. That launch mount now ships in three…
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