A powerful new small satellite launch vehicle failed to earn wings on its first attempt.
ABL Space Systems’ RS1 rocket launched on its first-ever orbital mission on Tuesday (January 10), rising at 18:27 EST (2327 GMT; 14:27 local time in) from a pad at the Pacific Spaceport Complex on Alaska’s Kodiak Island on Alaska).
The two-stage rocket failed on the first flight because it could not launch a pair of CubeSats into low Earth orbit (LEO) as planned, ABL officials said. (The launch was not broadcast live.)
“After takeoff, RS1 experienced an anomaly and shut down prematurely. The team is working through our anomaly response procedures in coordination with the PSCA and the FAA.” ABL announced this via Twitter (opens in new tab) 23 minutes after launch. (The acronyms refer to the Pacific Spaceport Complex-Alaska and the US Federal Aviation Administration.)
At around midnight EST on Tuesday, ABL provided additional information via Twitter. All nine of the RS1’s first stage engines were shut down simultaneously and the rocket landed back on the launch pad and was destroyed. explained the company (opens in new tab).
“As expected in this scenario, there is damage to the launch facility. All employees are safe and the fires have subsided. We will plan our return to flight after the investigation is complete. Thank you to our stakeholders and the space community for the expressions of support,” ABL said in another tweet (opens in new tab).
Tuesday was the second day in a row with a starting anomaly. On Monday (January 9), Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket failed to reach orbit during the company’s first-ever launch from the UK, resulting in the loss of nine satellites.
Related: A History of Rockets
A growing field
Small satellites have two routes into orbit: they can be hitchhiked as “rideshare” payloads on large rockets like SpaceX’s Falcon 9, or they can get special rides in smaller vehicles that take them exactly where they want to go.
For the past several years, Rocket Lab has dominated the dedicated ride market with its Electron vehicle, which has more than 30 orbital missions under its belt. But other companies are also trying to carve out their own place in this area. Virgin Orbit, for example, had completed four consecutive spaceflights with flying colors before Monday’s failure, and Firefly Aerospace reached orbit for the first time with its Alpha vehicle in October 2022.
(Another company, Astra, successfully deployed payloads for the first time with its Rocket 3 in March 2022, but the company retired that vehicle after several failures and is now working on a larger rocket.)
The California-based ABL, founded in 2017, also wants to become a big player in the launch of small satellites with the RS1 and the associated ground system, which the company calls GSO.
The 27 meter high RS1 is equipped with nine E2 engines from ABL in the first stage and one E2 in the second. The consumable rocket can launch up to 2,975 pounds (1,350 kilograms) of payload to LEO, according to the ABL User Guide (opens in new tab).
The company is currently charging $12 million per RS1 launch — a relatively low price for this kind of launch power. For comparison, Rocket Lab is charging about $7.5 million for an electron mission capable of delivering about 300 kg (660 pounds) to LEO.
ABL emphasizes a commitment to vertical integration and simplicity of design as key to the desired success. In addition, both the RS1 and the GSO are easy to transport and deploy. The floor system, for example, fits into standard shipping containers and can be placed anywhere in the world where there is a flat base.
“With RS1 and GSO we are able to take launch where it is needed,” says ABL’s website (opens in new tab).
ABL – which has yet to reveal what that acronym stands for – already has significant customer buy-in to its vision. In 2021, for example, the company signed a deal with aerospace giant Lockheed Martin (opens in new tab) for up to 58 missions through 2029.
Success on Tuesday’s first mission would have been a big step toward such ambitious goals. However, the failure should not prove to be a major obstacle for ABL in the long term; after all, the first flights of rockets often do not go according to plan.
The Lost CubeSats
Although Tuesday’s mission was a test flight, the RS1 carried a ready-to-go spacecraft — shoebox-sized cubesat called the VariSat 1A and VariSat 1B, according to EverydayAstronaut.com (opens in new tab).
The CubeSats, each weighing approximately 11 kg, would have completed a three-satellite network operated by VariSat LLC. VariSat 1C is safely in orbit; It was launched on a Falcon 9 in May 2022 along with nearly five dozen other satellites.
The main objective of the VariSat 1 mission is “to experiment and gain flight experience with a satellite designed to support HF [high frequency] Marine Data Communications,” according to a filing (opens in new tab) with the US Federal Communications Commission.
ABL initially attempted to launch its debut mission in mid-November, but was unable to due to multiple aborts during the week-long window. The company then dropped an attempt on December 8, the second day of the next launch window, after noticing abnormal data from the RS1. ABL held off until January 9 to address this issue, then delayed launch another day due to weather.
Editor’s note: This news item was updated at 12:30 p.m. ET on January 11 with more details about the anomaly provided by ABL Space Systems.
Mike Wall is the author of Out There (opens in new tab) (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book on the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter @michaelwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).