{"id":629884,"date":"2026-09-19T20:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T20:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/629884\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T20:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T20:24:16","slug":"dlrs-suborbital-mapheus-17-mission-to-launch-as-early-as-1-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/629884\/","title":{"rendered":"DLR\u2019s Suborbital MAPHEUS-17 Mission to Launch as Early as 1 October"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/DLRs-Suborbital-MAPHEUS-17-Mission-to-Launch-as-Early-as-1-October-.webp\" alt=\"DLR\u2019s MAPHEUS-17 suborbital mission is slated to launch from Esrange in Sweden as early as 1 October.\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7050\"  \/>Credit: DLR \/. SSC Space<\/p>\n<p>The German aerospace agency DLR\u2019s MAPHEUS-17 suborbital research mission is slated to launch from Sweden\u2019s Esrange Space Center as early as 1 October. In a 16 September update, the agency confirmed that several key preflight tests had been completed and that final preparations for the mission were now underway.<\/p>\n<p>According to SSC Space, the MAPHEUS-17 mission, which will be managed by DLR\u2019s Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA) team, is expected to launch from Esrange in Sweden between 1 and 8 October. Introduced in 2009, MAPHEUS is DLR\u2019s in-house sounding rocket programme that provides regular access to several minutes of microgravity for materials science, life science and technology demonstration experiments.<\/p>\n<p>The launch vehicle for the MAPHEUS-17 mission is expected to consist of a Red Kite first stage, a solid-fuel rocket booster developed by German defence company Bayern-Chemie under a DLR contract, and an Improved Malemute second stage. The Improved Malemute rocket motors are repurposed military surplus produced by Bayern-Chemie for Patriot missiles.<\/p>\n<p>In its 16 September update, the DLR Institute for Frontier Materials on Earth and in Space announced that the MAPHEUS-17 payload had completed a series of preflight tests. Teams first conducted a system bench test at DLR\u2019s Space Operations and Astronaut Training facility to verify the mechanical and electrical interfaces of the mission\u2019s fully integrated payload module.<\/p>\n<p>The fully integrated payload then completed a simulated countdown and flight sequence, followed by environmental testing that simulated the stresses expected during the launch and flight phases of the mission.<\/p>\n<p>Few details about the mission are currently publicly available, including the mission\u2019s payload manifest. MAPHEUS-15, which used the same Red Kite\/Improved Malemute configuration, carried approximately 380 kilograms of payload to an altitude of more than 300 kilometres, providing up to 7 minutes of microgravity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: DLR \/. SSC Space The German aerospace agency DLR\u2019s MAPHEUS-17 suborbital research mission is slated to launch&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[40628,61,60,82,247],"class_list":["post-629884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-dlr","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}