Canceled for the first time on May 31 due to too strong winds at altitude, the maiden flight of the small Spanish rocket Miura-1 was canceled again on Saturday June 17, this time due to a last-minute technical problem, announced its builder, the start-up PLD Space.
The launch of this space mini-launcher, a first for Spain, was planned in the province of Huelva (South-West). It was interrupted at the end of the countdown, according to live images broadcast on the PLD Space site.
The procedure was “automatically stopped” due to a problem with one of the energy supply pipes connected to the launcher before takeoff, the co-founder of the Spanish start-up, Raul Torres, explained on Twitter.
Small satellites, a promising market
The small 12-meter rocket, whose name Miura-1 echoes a breed of fighting bulls, was to be fired from a Spanish military base on the Andalusian coast near Moguer and rise about 100 kilometers above above the Gulf of Cadiz. Is high enough to reach space, but the rocket is still not powerful enough to orbit the Earth.
This suborbital mission must carry a load intended for experiments in microgravity and above all to prepare the future PLD Space launcher, Miura-5. About 70% of the components developed in-house for Miura-1 will be used for Miura-5, more imposing with its 35 meters high and its two floors.
The market for small satellites (less than 500 kilos), the type of spacecraft that Miura-5 intends to put into orbit from 2025, is impressive since, according to the specialist firm Euroconsult, nearly 18,500 of these devices must be launched over the next decade.