LAS VEGAS — ABL Space Systems is moving into the ultimate phases of preparations for the second launch of its RS1 rocket after the corporate’s first launch failed in January.
In an update posted Oct. 25, Harry O’Hanley, chief executive of ABL, said the corporate has accomplished a test of the RS1 rocket it called “dock dress” on the Port of Long Beach in California. That was a dress rehearsal of launch preparations involving the rocket and its GS0 ground support equipment.
Each the RS1 rocket and GS0 system feature upgrades for the reason that inaugural launch failed seconds after liftoff Jan. 10 from Kodiak Island, Alaska. The corporate said per 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.
On the time, ABL said the lack of power was linked to a fireplace within the rocket’s engine compartment, but didn’t say how the hearth began. O’Hanley wrote that the leading theory that emerged from the corporate’s investigation is that the hearth is linked to the design of the launch mount, a component 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 permit it and other GS0 elements to suit into shipping containers. “While this made transport easy, it resulted within the rocket being held near the bottom,” he wrote.
Nevertheless, that meant there was limited space between the engines and the bottom in order 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 warmth shield and caused the engine compartment fire.
The corporate has redesigned the launch mount to extend its height and exhaust area to forestall the exhaust recirculation problem. That launch mount now ships in three pieces as an alternative of 1, which he said may be assembled on the launch site in a number of shifts.
O’Hanley said that the corporate also decided to maneuver ahead with a Block 2 version of the RS1 rocket. That version features upgrades comparable to increased thrust and more propellant, in addition to design changes intended to enhance production.
“This strategy added significant design scope to the Flight 2 roadmap,” he wrote. “Nevertheless, moving straight to Block 2 is a more direct path to constructing flight heritage on the configuration that may carry customer payloads to orbit.”
With the dock dress rehearsal complete, ABL is making final preparations to ship the rocket and ground support equipment to Kodiak. Once there, he said, they may undergo additional tests, including a static fire of the primary stage, before going forward with a launch. The corporate didn’t provide a timetable for that launch.
“It was not in our plans to have RS1 grounded for many of 2023,” O’Hanley wrote, preferring what he described as “iterative development cycles with a hardware-rich approach.”
“Circumstances pushed us in the opposite direction this 12 months,” he wrote, with the corporate as an alternative implementing several changes at the identical time. “This prepares us well and sets a robust baseline for future RS1 and GS0 upgrade cycles.”