Relativity Space aborts launch of Terran 1, the world's first 3D-printed rocket, twice in 1 day
Mar 11 2023
Two launch countdown aborts, a wayward boat and high winds delayed the Terran 1 rocket launch.
An attempt by startup Relativity Space to launch the world's first 3D-printed rocket on Saturday (March 11) was cut short by two different aborts amid weather and range safety delays.
The 3d-printed rocket, called Terran 1, was scheduled to launch on a debut flight from Launch Complex 16 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida during a three-hour window on Saturday afternoon. Despite three attempts, the company was unable to launch the rocket after suffering two last-minute aborts, including on that fired up its engines, and one hold when boat encroached in the offshore safety zone.
"Our teams obviously gave it an amazing shot today and we had high hopes for sending our Terran 1 off, but we're going to continue to take a measured approach so we can ultimately see this rocket off to max Q and beyond," Arwa Tizani Kelly, test and launch technical program manager for Relativity Space, said during live launch commentary, echoing comments she made after the company's first launch attempt on March 8, which also ended in a scrub.
The Terran 1 mission, called "Good Luck, Have Fun," is not carrying a payload. It is only carrying an old 3d-printed component from a failed print test by Relativity Space as a memento for the company.
Relativity Space's attempts to launch Terran 1, a 110-foot-tall (33-meter) rocket designed to launch small satellites into low-Earth orbit, began Saturday at 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT), but was delayed for more than an hour due to unacceptable high upper level winds. An attempt to launch Terran 1 at 2:35 p.m. EST (1935 GMT) was thwarted 70 seconds before liftoff by a boat that apparently drifted inside the keep-out zone of the launch safety range.
The company then attempted to launch Terran 1 at 2:42 p.m. EST (1942 GMT), but saw an automatic abort at less than half a second before liftoff. The rocket's nine Aeon 1 engines fired up briefly then shut down due to a "launch commit criteria violation," according to launch director Clay Walker. The company later said an issue with the rocket's stage separation automation led to the abort.
A third attempt to launch the rocket on Saturday came at 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT), the end of the window, when another abort occurred 45 seconds before liftoff. That abort was caused by a fuel pressure issue on the second stage, which was 1 pound-per-square-inch (PSI) too low, the company said via Twitter.
"We've had to abort the internal count," Walker said in Relativity Space's launch webcast. "We are likely scrubbed for the day. Safing up the vehicle, thanks for playing."
https://www.space.com/relativity-space-terran-1-rocket-aborts-2nd-launch-try