the launch of its first Hanbit-Nano rocket Dec. 22<\/a> from the Alc\u00e2ntara Space Center in Brazil. The rocket appeared to lift off normally but fell back to Earth and exploded about 80 seconds after liftoff. There were no injuries or damage to launch facilities.<\/p>\nThe company said it found that, 33 seconds after liftoff, exhaust leaked from the rocket\u2019s first-stage combustion chamber, \u201cresulting in a rupture of the combustion chamber and the subsequent separation of the launch vehicle into multiple parts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Investigators traced the leak to plastic deformation of sealing components when part of the combustion chamber for the hybrid engine was reassembled at the launch site before the launch. In response, Innospace plans to improve quality management and assembly processes, as well as make \u201ccertain design improvements\u201d to the rocket that it did not specify.<\/p>\n
The investigation was carried out jointly with Brazil\u2019s Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center, known as CENIPA.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth Innospace and CENIPA have reached a consistent conclusion regarding the analysis results, and there are no differences between the two organizations regarding the follow-up measures,\u201d Soojong Kim, chief executive of Innospace, said in the statement. \u201cBased on these findings, we will implement the necessary technical improvements and conduct thorough verification to further enhance the safety and success rate of future launches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Immediately after the failure, Kim said the company would attempt the vehicle\u2019s next launch in the first half of 2026. In the announcement, the company said that launch has slipped to the third quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe exact schedule for the follow-up launch will be finalized after the completion of technical corrective measures and the receipt of launch authorization from KASA,\u201d the Korean space agency, the company said. \u201cInnospace plans to conduct the follow-up launch in Brazil within the third quarter of this year using an already secured launch slot.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the investigation was ongoing, Innospace was working to secure additional spaceports for Hanbit-Nano and future vehicles. The company announced in January an agreement with the Atlantic Spaceport Consortium to launch from a planned spaceport in the Azores.<\/p>\n
On March 4, Innospace said it signed a letter of intent with Canadian spaceport operator Maritime Launch Services to examine potential use of Spaceport Nova Scotia, a facility under development near Canso, Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 South Korean startup Innospace says its inaugural launch failed in December when exhaust leaked from a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[67535,111,139,69,147,2303,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-336147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-innospace","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-sn","14":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}