TAMPA, Fla. — Rocket Factory Augsburg no longer plans a maiden flight this year after losing part of its RFA ONE rocket during a static-fire test, the German company said Aug. 23 as it released more details about the incident.
“We won’t be firing another first stage this year and the first test flight has also been postponed until next year,” RFA spokesperson Jonas Kellner told SpaceNews via email.
The company had aimed to fly RFA ONE for the first time in a matter of weeks, before its first stage was destroyed Aug. 19 during tests at SaxaVord Spaceport, Scotland. The inaugural mission had looked set to be the first-ever vertical launch to orbit from British soil.
Point of no return
“The plan for Monday was to hot-fire the stage with all nine engines for the first time,” RFA chief operating officer and co-founder Stefan Brieschenk said in a social media post.
However, one of the eight motors that successfully ignited developed a “very unusual” anomaly.
“It was most likely a fire in the oxygen pump,” Brieschenk continued. “That’s really difficult to contain.”
UPDATE on our S1 test anomaly! Our first stage is gone – but we have collected a significant amount of data and film footage. After reviewing it, we want to share some insights into the technical analysis, preliminary conclusions and our next steps ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/FnGHjTCS2g
— Rocket Factory Augsburg (@rfa_space) August 23, 2024
The fire soon spread to neighboring engines and — despite an emergency stop procedure — “it appears that everything that followed thereafter was simply not sized for this extensive damage from this oxygen fire in the turbopump.”
A fire jet seen coming out of the rocket’s side indicates a damaged engine propellant manifold system that signaled “the point of no return,” Brieschenk added, ultimately collapsing the entire first stage.
Getting back on track
Brieschenk said RFA has previously ignited the rocket’s Helix motors more than 100 times without causing an oxygen fire in one of the turbopumps, giving the company confidence that it does not need to make any design changes.
Even still, he described the first stage as an engineering model and said another booster already in the works would have more than 100 improvements — mostly to propellant and pressurization systems.
The improvements “will help us to sustain a major engine damage, in flight and on the pad, without basically losing the stage,” he said, adding “we want to make sure that, if we have such a severe engine failure where a turbo pump basically explodes, we will not lose stages in the future.”
RFA ONE’s fairing, second and third stages are unaffected and awaiting integration in Saxaford for their debut next year.
And while RFA needs to rebuild direct supporting systems for the rocket that are integrated with the launch stool, Brieschenk said the rest of the launchpad is unscathed.
European rocket developers Skyrora and Orbex are also working toward maiden flights from the United Kingdom.
Skyrora last year said it was aiming for a launch in 2024 but has not provided an update, while Orbex CEO Phil Chambers recently said the company expects to make its debut in 2025.
In July, a rocket being developed by California’s ABL Space Systems was damaged during a static-fire test, likely delaying plans to launch out of the United Kingdom in 2025.