Rocket Factory Augsburg

[tater]

 

 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Dass ist kein video 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

They say they will use a sea level nozzle for testing and then replace with vacuum for flight... Is that common? 

[Beccab]

1 hour ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

They say they will use a sea level nozzle for testing and then replace with vacuum for flight... Is that common? 

I imagine their vacuum nozzle just isn't capable of operating at 1 atm, which makes sense

[tater]

 

[tater]

 

[tater]

 

 

[AckSed]

Totally missed this earlier, but EA has a new video comparing and contrasting RFA and ISAR, another startup. Tl;dw RFA takes advantage of automotive suppliers and a cost-optimising expert system to have components tweaked and supplied for a tenth of the cost from aerospace supplier, while ISAR is a near-full-integration vertical: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRFnGnJzRJQ

Honestly, RFA seems to have this: they build cheaply, build cleverly and outright state that they have to be profitable or they'll die.

Edit: However, as a rocket propellant nerd, I like that ISAR is not only using propalox, but also cooling the chamber and throat with the LOX, with the propane cooling the nozzle.

Edited May 21 by AckSed
Pasted youtube, embedded as X post

[AckSed]

3rd stage testing before first launch. Doesn't mention what the propellant is, but it's supposed to have 2.5km/s delta-V: https://www.rfa.space/redshift/

In a lot of ways, this is their equivalent of Rocket Lab's Photon, meant to host payloads, transfer to higher orbits and so on.

[darthgently]

2 hours ago, AckSed said:

3rd stage testing before first launch. Doesn't mention what the propellant is, but it's supposed to have 2.5km/s delta-V: https://www.rfa.space/redshift/

In a lot of ways, this is their equivalent of Rocket Lab's Photon, meant to host payloads, transfer to higher orbits and so on.

But is it really a full duration test if they didn't burn through 2.5km/s DV of fuel? <ducking>

[RCgothic]

An RFA rocket just exploded at the UK's Shetland launch site:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy54wqzz0kvo.amp

[darthgently]

1 hour ago, RCgothic said:

An RFA rocket just exploded at the UK's Shetland launch site:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy54wqzz0kvo.amp

So now they face the perennial debugger's question:  It worked fine before, what changed? 

I think of it as the Moria Phase.  In reference to when Gandalf says, "Now we face the long dark of Moria". 

Step one is the hardest typically:

Admitting that something must have changed between the successful test and the fail.  It can be very easy to get a blindspot and keep clinging to "but this worked before!  Nothing is different!  It's not fair! blah blah blah".  Something changed, by golly

[coyotesfrontier]

On 7/29/2024 at 6:38 AM, AckSed said:

3rd stage testing before first launch. Doesn't mention what the propellant is, but it's supposed to have 2.5km/s delta-V: https://www.rfa.space/redshift/

In a lot of ways, this is their equivalent of Rocket Lab's Photon, meant to host payloads, transfer to higher orbits and so on.

According to wikipedia it's Nitromethane, which is a less toxic but far more explosive alternative to hydrazine

As written of nitromethane in Ignition:

"...by some miracle he managed to avoid killing himself [experimenting with nitroglycerin as a propellant], and he extended the work to the somewhat less sensitive nitromethane..."

"...Bob Truax, at KES, tried his hand [with nitromethane]-and was almost killed when somebody connected the wrong pipe to the right valve and the tank blew..."

"...Nitromethane, naturally, was the best depressant of the lot, and a freezing point of -100f was reached without any trouble, but the mixture was too sensitive and likely to explode to be of any use..."

Interestingly, it seems that rocket factory is using it as a bipropellant with nitrous oxide rather than as a monopropellant as is written of it in Ignition.

 

[tater]

 

 

[AckSed]

RFA think it was an oxygen turbopump fire: https://europeanspaceflight.com/rfa-identifies-turbopump-as-the-cause-for-rfa-one-test-failure/