The flight of the Hanbit-Nano rocket from the CLA (Alcântara Launch Center), in Maranhão, has been postponed for the third time. In a note, the FAB (Brazilian Air Force) said that it must define with Innospace and the AEB (Brazilian Space Agency) when a new attempt will be made in the launch window, which extends until next Monday (22).
In the mission called Spaceward, the South Korean company Innospace aims to put the vehicle into orbit. The operation brings together around 400 professionals, Brazilians and South Koreans.
If the flight takes place, it will be the first launch of satellites into Earth orbit from Brazilian territory.
The report for this Friday (19) is the third in the series. Initially scheduled for November 22, the flight was finally postponed to December 17. According to the FAB, the extension of the deadline would allow new safety tests to be carried out.
Then the date was changed again due to an anomaly identified during final inspections. Innospace stated that it would need to replace a component of the refrigeration unit of the first stage oxidizer system.
This Friday’s flight was scheduled for 3:34 p.m. Then, throughout the afternoon, the schedule was moved forward, until it was announced that it would no longer take place. At one point, the South Korean company said it was necessary to take corrective measures in the local energy supply system.
According to the memo released Friday evening, Innospace said it would conduct a “technical inspection of the operation of the valve used to supply the second stage liquid methane tank.”
Once launched, the rocket will carry eight payloads, developed by entities in Brazil and India, with a combined mass of 22 kg. And if all goes well, they should be placed in a low Earth orbit with an altitude of 300 kilometers and an inclination of 40 degrees.
The vehicle is 22 meters high, weighs 30 tonnes, can reach around 30,000 kilometers per hour and its development began in 2023, when the prototype was tested at the CLA during Operation Astrolábio.
History of Alcantara
The CLA, a facility operated by the FAB, serves as the primary platform for space launches in the country.
This is where the three attempts to launch the VLS-1 (Satellite Launch Vehicle) took place, in 1997, 1999 and 2003, all unsuccessful, the last one even before takeoff, with a catastrophic fire that killed 21 technicians and engineers from the Brazilian space program and ended up putting a premature end to the project.
Since then, the CLA has only served suborbital launches, mainly with the VSB-30 sounding rocket, developed by the IAE (Institute of Aeronautics and Space) in partnership with the DLR (German Space Agency).
The last launch of this vehicle in Alcântara took place in 2022. The vehicle is also used for missions carried out from the Esrange space center, Sweden, the last of which took place last year.
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