Private spaceflight is difficult before the interplanetary glory self-developed rocket fails for the second time in the year | Carrier Rocket | Hyperbola One

Original title: Private spaceflight struggles before the interplanetary glory self-developed rocket fails for the second time in the year

At 15:00 on August 3, the Hyperbolic One commercial launch vehicle, which pioneered a private rocket’s orbit, ignited its third rocket at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, but the rocket flew abnormally since then. After separation, it failed to enter orbit normally, and the flight test failed.

This is the second launch failure of Hyperbola One after February this year. On February 1, the Hyperbolic One and Yao-2 carrier rocket was launched in Jiuquan. After that, the rocket flew abnormally and the launch mission failed.

　The launch of the Star Arrow Hyperbola One failed

At noon on August 4, Interstellar Glory released a test mission statement on its official WeChat, stating that the solid engine, liquid attitude and orbit control power, navigation guidance and control of the hyperbolic Yaowu rocket launched on the afternoon of August 3 were working normally. The separation between the space and the arrow is normal, and the flight sequence is basically the same as the theoretical sequence.

However, due to the failure of the fairing to separate normally, the rocket could not be sent into the scheduled 500 km SSO (Sun Synchronous Orbit), and the flight test failed to achieve the expected goal.

Interstellar Glory said that this launch verified the correctness of the overall plan of the Hyperbolic One rocket, obtained effective flight data, and accumulated valuable experience and lessons.

Hyperbola One is a star rocket in the domestic private commercial aerospace field. It is designed and developed by the private commercial aerospace head company Interstellar Glory. It is a four-stage small solid carrier rocket. The four stages are all solid engines and are supplemented by liquid attitude control engines. Hyperbola One has a diameter of 1.4 meters, a total length of 24 meters, a total mass of about 42 tons, and a take-off thrust of 770kN.

According to Interstellar Glory, the 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit of Hyperbola One has a carrying capacity of more than 300 kilograms, and the 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit has a carrying capacity of 225 kilograms.

As of the beginning of August 2021, the domestic private commercial aerospace field has conducted a total of six launch attempts to launch a carrier rocket into orbit. Except for the third and fourth successes, the remaining four have all failed.

In October 2018 and March 2019, Blue Arrow Aerospace’s Suzaku-1 solid carrier rocket and Zero One’s OS-M solid carrier rocket failed to launch into orbit.

In July 2019, the Hyperbola-1 Yaoyi carrier rocket launched its first launch in Jiuquan, and sent multiple satellites and payloads into the scheduled orbit. The launch mission was a complete success.

This success also allowed Hyperbola One and Star Glory to successfully out of the circle, arousing widespread concern from all walks of life. With the success of this first launch, Interstellar Glory became the first private rocket company in China and the third in the world to achieve rocket launches into orbit.

In November 2020, another private rocket company, Galaxy Dynamics, launched its self-developed “Ceres Star One (Yaoyi) Jianyang” commercial solid launch vehicle into space, and carried the satellite into the predetermined orbit accurately. As a result, Galaxy Power became the second private rocket company in China to successfully launch a rocket into orbit.

The fifth and sixth private rocket launches were launched by Star Glory in February and August of the year.

Fierce momentum hitting the Sci-tech Innovation Board

In 2015, various relevant departments successively issued policies to support the development of commercial aerospace. Talents and technologies within the domestic aerospace industry system began to enter the market. Many startup companies focusing on commercial rockets and microsatellites were established one after another, and the domestic commercial aerospace industry began to flourish.

In January 2016, Interstellar Glory was officially established in Yizhuang, Beijing. Its main business direction is to develop commercial launch vehicles and provide launch services.

Since its establishment, the development momentum of Interstellar Glory has been rapid, and the development and launch of the small solid launch vehicle Hyperbola 1 has been completed, and the reusable liquid launch vehicle Hyperbola 2 is under development and design. In addition, Interstellar Glory also has reusable, variable thrust liquid rocket engine Focus No. 1, 100-ton reusable, variable thrust liquid oxygen methane engine Focus No. 2 and other products.

In the process of development, Interstellar Glory is also favored by capital. In August 2020, Interstellar Glory completed a B round of financing of 1.192.5 billion yuan, breaking the record of the largest single financing in the domestic commercial aerospace field.

In January 2021, information on the official website of the Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau showed that Starcraft Glory plans to be listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, and Tianfeng Securities andCITIC SecuritiesActing as a counseling agency. If the listing is successful, Interstellar Glory is expected to become the first share of China’s private rockets.

Commercial aerospace is a capital-intensive enterprise that requires a lot of funds to provide support for the technology R&D and operation team. Up to now, the total capital invested in China’s private commercial aerospace sector has approached 10 billion yuan. If it is said that at the beginning of the development of private commercial aerospace, capital was still in the stage of spreading the net and testing the waters, then capital has now begun to strictly select investment targets, and the scale of financing of leading companies has begun to throw off the role of latecomers.

In addition to interstellar glory, Blue Arrow Aerospace and rising star Galaxy Power are also strong competitors in the field of private rockets. In 2020, the above three companies received a total of 2.6 billion yuan in financing, setting a new financing record in the history of domestic private commercial aerospace development.

Compared with the mature development of the state-owned aerospace industry and the Space X company in the United States, China’s private commercial aerospace started late, and while achieving a series of achievements, it is still in a stage of difficult exploration and development. After successfully conducting multiple suborbital rocket launch tests, the entire industry is facing the difficulty of getting the rocket into orbit and needs to surmount.

Industry insiders said that for the private rocket industry, in addition to the R&D and design of individual technologies and products, rocket development and launch also face the quality control of thousands of parts and components. How to build a stable supply chain suitable for their own enterprises? These are all issues that private enterprises need to face.

(Author: Peng Qiang Editor: Zhang Weixian)

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