WASHINGTON — Spanish launch vehicle startup PLD Space declared their first suborbital launch a success, clearing the way for development of an orbital launch vehicle.
At an Oct. 20 briefing, company executives said the Oct. 7 (local time) launch of its Miura 1 rocket from a Spanish government base met all their objectives, demonstrating key technologies for the Miura 5 vehicle.
“On our side, we conclude the launch was a success,” Raúl Torres, PLD Space chief executive and launch director, said through an interpreter at the briefing. The actual trajectory of the rocket, he said, closely followed the expected trajectory.
There had been some confusion at the time of the launch about that trajectory. The company had previously stated, including in a press kit distributed days before the launch, that Miura 1would fly to a peak altitude of 80 kilometers. The rocket, though, flew to only 46 kilometers.
Torres said that PLD Space had depressed the trajectory of the launch, lowering its peak altitude but extending its downrange distance, to avoid the risk of the rocket falling back on land if it suffered an in-flight failure.
“Up until the very last minute, we wondered which option we should follow,” he said. “The idea was to maximize security in the closer range,” such as the launch pad itself and nearby beaches. He said later in the briefing that the company decided to change the trajectory on “the last day” before launch.
That change, he emphasized, did not reflect any shortfall in the performance of the rocket. “The engine behavior was excellent. We are very confident in this,” he said. “The reality is that the rocket has done what it was supposed to do.”
There were some minor issues with the launch. Torres said there were some unanticipated oscillations in the rocket during the subsonic phase of its ascent. He said the rocket’s reaction control system worked harder than expected to counter rotation on the…
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