TAMPA, Fla. – Rocket Factory Augsburg is no longer planning a maiden flight this year after part of its RFA ONE rocket was lost during a fire test, the German company said Aug. 23 as it released more details about the incident.
“We will not ignite another first stage this year and the first test flight has also been postponed until next year,” said RFA spokesman Jonas Kellner. SpaceNews by email.
The company had planned to make its first flight of RFA ONE within weeks before the first stage was destroyed during tests at Scotland’s SaxaVord Spaceport on August 19. The maiden mission was to be the first vertical launch into orbit from British soil.
Point of no return
“The plan for Monday was to heat the stage for the first time with all nine engines,” said Stefan Brieschenk, chief operating officer and co-founder of RFA, in a social media post.
However, one of the eight engines that successfully ignited experienced a “very unusual” anomaly.
“It was most likely a fire in the oxygen pump,” Brieschenk continued. “That’s really hard to contain.”
The fire quickly spread to neighboring engines, and despite an emergency braking, “everything that followed simply does not seem to have been designed to deal with the enormous damage caused by the oxygen fire in the turbopump.”
A jet of fire emerging from the side of the rocket indicated a damaged fuel distribution system, which signaled the “point of no return,” Brieschenk added, and ultimately led to the collapse of the entire first stage.
Back on track
Brieschenk said RFA has already fired the rocket’s helix engines more than 100 times without experiencing an oxygen fire in any of the turbopumps, so the company is confident it will not need to make any design changes.
Still, he described the first stage as a technical model and said another booster already under development would feature more than 100 improvements – most of them related to fuel and pressure systems.
The improvements “will help us survive a major engine failure in flight and on the launch pad without essentially losing the stage,” he said, adding: “We want to make sure that in the event of such a severe engine failure where a turbopump essentially explodes, we don’t lose stages in the future.”
The fairing and second and third stages of RFA ONE are unaffected and await integration into Saxaford for their debut next year.
And while RFA has to rebuild the direct support systems for the rocket integrated into the launch pad, the rest of the launch pad is undamaged, according to Brieschenk.
European rocket developers Skyrora and Orbex are also working on maiden flights from the UK.
Skyrora announced last year that it was aiming for a 2024 launch but has not provided an update, while Orbex CEO Phil Chambers recently said the company expects a 2025 debut.
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