Chinese aerospace company CAS Space, a subsidiary of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), conducted an unsuccessful flight test of the Kinetica-1 solid rocket launch vehicle. The TASS news agency writes about this with reference to a CAS Space message in the local media.
Image source: chinadaily.com.cn
The report says that the launch of the Kinetica-1 launch vehicle was carried out from the Dongfeng test site (North China) at 09:03 local time (04:03 Moscow time). A malfunction occurred in the carrier’s third stage engine three seconds after launch. After this, the safety system was activated, causing the missile to self-destruct. CAS Space management apologized to those who support the company and promised to investigate the incident and make efforts to ensure successful rocket launches in the future.
According to the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), CAS Space planned to deliver 11 satellites into outer space as part of the current mission. Among them were the prototype of the return scientific experimental vehicle Dier-3 of the Chinese company AZSpace and the French cubesat CASAA-Sat of the Marseille Astrophysical Laboratory.
As for the Kinetica-1 rocket itself, it is a four-stage solid propellant carrier with a fairing with a diameter of 3.35 m. The rocket reaches 31 m in length and can deliver up to 2 tons of cargo into low Earth orbit, and up to 1 ton into sun-synchronous orbit. .5 t.