During the countdown, Relativity‘s Terran 1 rocket was forced to scrub yesterday’s launch of the first 3D-printed rocket. This comes after the vehicle’s scheduled March 8th liftoff was postponed. However, the failed attempts were due to a mixture of weather conditions and safety checks.
Those tuning into the live countdown taking place in Cape Canaveral, Florida, were met with an announcement stating, “We are going to scrub for the day,” at T-00:00:45. With less than a minute from launch, this was a disappointment, but its better than risking the entire rocket.
The failures Relativity encountered do not appear to result from the 3D-printed materials. Instead, they stem from automated failsafe triggers, one of which was set off when fuel pressurization was 1 PSI below normal. The events leading to the two scrapped launches are outlined below in a Twitter thread. If the Tweets fail to load, we’ve quoted the thread:
During abort #1: It was a corner case in the stage separation automation a few seconds before T-0 that properly aborted at T .5 seconds.
— Relativity Space (@relativityspace) March 11, 2023
During abort #2: At T-45 seconds, we had an automated abort on stage 2 fuel pressure, which was only one PSI low.
— Relativity Space (@relativityspace) March 11, 2023
“A quick breakdown of the reasons for our aborts during terminal counts today:
- During abort #1: It was a corner case in the stage separation automation a few seconds before T-0 that properly aborted at T .5 seconds.
- Then, the team pushed an update to the vehicle automation, successfully recycled the vehicle, and secured a new T-0 time, which was an instantaneous window, given it was during the last minute of our launch window today at 16:00 ET.
- During abort #2: At T-45 seconds, we had an automated abort on stage 2 fuel pressure, which was only one PSI low.
- The team went HARD today and we intend to do so during our next attempt. More to come on the new launch date and window soon. #GLHF“
These were the last comments from Relativity Space. The tweets were published 17 hours ago (as of the publishing of this article). The company’s website offers no additional updates. However, it links to videos of the rocket’s 3D-printed assembly timelapse, which is fascinating to watch.
[Source: Relativity Space]
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