SYDNEY: An Australian aerospace firm said Friday it has scrubbed a historic attempt to send a locally developed rocket into orbit, citing a glitch in the nose cone protecting its payload \u2014 a jar of Vegemite.
\nAn electrical fault erroneously deployed the opening mechanism of the carbon-fiber nose cone during pre-flight testing, Gilmour Space Technologies said.
\nThe nose cone is designed to shield the payload during the rocket\u2019s ascent through the Earth\u2019s atmosphere before reaching space.
\nThe mishap happened before fueling of the vehicle at the company\u2019s spaceport near the east coast township of Bowen, about 1,000 kilometers up from the Queensland capital Brisbane.
\n\u201cThe good news is the rocket and the team are both fine. While we\u2019re disappointed by the delay, we\u2019re already working through a resolution and expect to be back on the pad soon,\u201d said chief executive Adam Gilmour.
\n\u201cAs always, safety is our highest priority.\u201d
\nGilmour said the team would now work to identify the problem on its 23-meter, three-stage Eris rocket, which is designed to send satellites into low-Earth orbit.
\nA replacement nose cone would be transported to the launch site in the coming days, he said.
\nWeighing 30 tons fully fueled, the rocket has a hybrid propulsion system, using a solid inert fuel and a liquid oxidiser, which provides the oxygen for it to burn.
\nIf successful, it would be the first Australian-made rocket to be sent into orbit from Australian soil.
\n\u201cWe have all worked really hard so, yes, the team is disappointed. But on the other hand, we do rockets \u2014 they are used to setbacks,\u201d said communications chief Michelle Gilmour.
\n\u201cWe are talking about at least a few weeks, so it is not going to happen now,\u201d she told AFP.
\nThe payload for the initial test \u2014 a jar of Vegemite \u2014 remained intact.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s hardy, resilient, like Aussies,\u201d she said.
\nGilmour Space Technologies had to delay a launch attempt the previous day, too, because of a bug in the external power system it relies on for system checks.
\nThe company, which has 230 employees, hopes to start commercial launches in late 2026 or early 2027.
\nIt has worked on rocket development for a decade, and is backed by investors including venture capital group Blackbird and pension fund HESTA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SYDNEY: An Australian aerospace firm said Friday it has scrubbed a historic attempt to send a locally developed rocket into orbit, citing a glitch in the nose cone protecting its payload \u2014 a jar of Vegemite. An electrical fault erroneously deployed the opening mechanism of the carbon-fiber nose cone during pre-flight testing, Gilmour Space Technologies …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":81089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81073"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81091,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81073\/revisions\/81091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}