Spanish rocket startup successfully completes first suborbital test launch
The Spanish rocket startup PLD today successfully completed its first suborbital test launch, a short flight of its Miura-1 prototype rocket, lifting off from its spaceport in Spain.
I have embedded video of the launch below, cued to just before launch. Though the plan had been to recover the first stage using parachutes, it is unclear if this occurred or was even attempted. The launch was at night, making recovery difficult or much slower, and because the broadcast was in Spanish there was no translation,
Regardless, the data from this launch will be used by the company to build its orbital rocket, Miura-5.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The Spanish rocket startup PLD today successfully completed its first suborbital test launch, a short flight of its Miura-1 prototype rocket, lifting off from its spaceport in Spain.
I have embedded video of the launch below, cued to just before launch. Though the plan had been to recover the first stage using parachutes, it is unclear if this occurred or was even attempted. The launch was at night, making recovery difficult or much slower, and because the broadcast was in Spanish there was no translation,
Regardless, the data from this launch will be used by the company to build its orbital rocket, Miura-5.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The rocket reached only 47 km maximum altitude (instead of planned 80 km) as it seems.
And once again we see that not only does SpaceX leave everyone else in the dust in terms of actual rocketry capability, but the theoretically much easier component of a presentable, understandable and clear video presentation. How, in 2023, do you have totally over-amped and blown out communications? When I was in military intelligence my job involved listening to Spanish language radio communications that were often coming from half a world away and were nearly buried in the static, and they still were more understandable than this.
David–
ref– “…a presentable, understandable and clear video presentation…”
Completely agree with that thought.
Sound is crummy. On the upside, it appears they have the capability for various camera angles and tracking on the video side.
Some telemetry would have been nice.
It’s a new career field: Spaceflight Media Presentation. Various specialities available. Not joking, really.
James Burke
Connections: Ep 08
“The Greatest Shot In Television”
https://youtu.be/2WoDQBhJCVQ
Why is there so much hype about every little rocket that anyone tries to launch? This does not exist in any other sector of transport. We have known the technology for more than 80 years. Chemical rocket engine technology is now very well understood and is not extremely difficult.
Purely as an OCD side note, suborbital is misspelled twice as suborbial.
Surly: Thank you. Typo fixed.
Questioner asked: “Why is there so much hype about every little rocket that anyone tries to launch? This does not exist in any other sector of transport. We have known the technology for more than 80 years. Chemical rocket engine technology is now very well understood and is not extremely difficult.”
The little rockets are interesting because virtually all of them are new and untried. The chances of a spectacular failure are high. People are interested in the spectacle, or at least the potential for the spectacle. Other sectors of transport don’t have that much potential for this kind of entertainment.
We are also interested in the progress of the new smallsat launch industry, so these new rockets are doubly interesting, and this second interest is most of the reason for the hype. In addition, these new companies often try new technologies that are untried, untrue, not understood, and potentially explosive — which goes right back to the ‘spectacle’ nature of these first launches and even of the ground testing of new engines. Watching new technologies work right is also a reason for hype. Some of us like that feature.
Questioner,
If the technology is not difficult, then why do you think that so many new rockets don’t make it to orbit on their first launch?
Don’t sell short the other transportation sectors. There are plenty of YouTube videos featuring trains, planes, ships, and automobiles.
Also, don’t get me wrong: jet engines are also highly complicated, high thrust machines, built to be lightweight, yet operating under high temperatures and high pressures in a high vibration environment. However, rocket engines are far more fuel intensive, with far more energy rushing through them than even jet engines. Rocket engines explode a little more often than even these high tech jet engines.
To Wayne,
Charles Osgood wrote a bit about Comsat in one of his books.