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European company That seeks to develop orbital Spacecraft For Cargo, in the end, humans took a step forward this week with a test trip that witnessed a “mission possible” vehicle’s force up and successfully flying in orbit before a re -entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.
However, after facing a “case”, the exploration company lost the spacecraft a few minutes before the landing in the ocean.
In an update on LinkedIn on Tuesday morning, the company described the test journey as partial success – and partial failure.
“The capsule was successfully launched, as the beneficial load settled in the orbit, and it settled on itself after separating the operator, re -inserting it and re -establishing it after blacks,” The company said in a statement. “We are still investigating the radical causes and we will share more information soon. We apologize to all our customers who have entrusted us with their load.”
Perhaps it was umbrellas
The re -establishment of communications with the spacecraft after a period of blackout indicates that the car has reached the thermally challenging part of re -entering the Earth’s atmosphere and perhaps the authenticity of the spacecraft processing and its ability to withstand the utmost heating.
After this, according to The company’s timetable For the possible task, the capsule umbrellas were caused by spreading them quickly between Mach 0.8 and Mach 0.6. The company said that the umbrellas were chosen for “confirmed airline heritage”, and it was purchased from the US -based air -based systems, which provide umbrellas used by Dragon’s Dragon and Boeing’s Starliner and other spacecraft.
Given the loss of the spacecraft, it seems likely that there is a problem in spreading the main umbrellas or umbrellas.
The possible task was a 2.5 -meter -diameter vehicle, which was among the largest loads that were launched on Monday afternoon at the Spacex Transporter 14 mission of Vandenberg Space Base in California. The mission has sought to test four initial areas of space: structural performance in orbits, re -survival, independent movement, and refreshing in real conditions. It is clear that he only failed in this final task, as it regained the car within three days to return to the load on the plane to the customers.
Meet an aggressive timetable
It is refreshing to have a clear and brief connection from a satellite company, especially recognizing that the journey was partial failure, within hours of launch. It is not surprising that there are technical challenges on a vehicle that was somewhat assembled quickly and at low costs.
in Interview with ARS Last November, the founder of the exploration company, Helen Hobby, said that the possible task was developed at a cost of about $ 20 million in 2.5 years, as well as $ 10 million to launch Rideshare at the Falcon 9 missile.
At that time, she said that the possible task was on the right track to launch this summer, and the company received this schedule.
Given the potential problems in the umbrella system or other problems close to the landing, the exploration company can fly another sub -display task before moving to the development of a full -sized NYX spacecraft.