The inaugural flight of the Spanish Miura-1 rocket was suspended today due to a last-minute technical problem, announced its manufacturer, the company PLD Space, in a new incident suffered by this mini-satellite space launcher.
The launch, the first of a rocket designed and manufactured in Spain, was scheduled in the southern province of Huelva, but was interrupted at the end of the countdown, according to images posted on the PLD Space website.
The procedure was “automatically” stopped, due to a technical problem in one of the launcher’s power supply connections before takeoff, the co-founder of the company, Raúl Torres, explained on Twitter.
The inaugural flight of Miura-1, whose name refers to the traditional bull, was originally scheduled for May 31, but had to be canceled due to strong winds, AFP recalled.
The small 12-meter rocket was to take off from a Spanish military base on the Andalusian coast, near Moguer, and rise some 100 kilometers above the Gulf of Cádiz. High enough to reach space, but not powerful enough to orbit the Earth.
The purpose of this suborbital mission is to transport a payload for experiments in microgravity and, above all, to prepare the future PLD Space launcher, the Miura-5.
About 70% of the components developed in-house for the Miura-1 will be used for the 35-meter-tall, two-stage Miura-5.
There is a sizeable market for the small satellites, weighing less than 500 kilograms, that Miura-5 intends to put into orbit from 2025.
Source: Ambito
