WASHINGTON — Virgin Orbit offered extra particulars concerning the probably reason for its LauncherOne failure final month however didn’t estimate when the car shall be able to return to flight.
In a Feb. 14 assertion, the corporate elaborated on feedback made per week earlier by its chief govt, Dan Hart, who stated on the SmallSat Symposium Feb. 7 that a filter in the rocket’s second stage propulsion system dislodged “and caused mischief downstream” that led to a untimely shutdown of the engine earlier than the rocket reached orbit.
Virgin Orbit stated that the gasoline filter for the second-stage NewtonFour engine had been dislodged from its regular place. The gasoline pump downstream of that filter “operated at a degraded effectivity degree,” lowering the quantity of gasoline reaching the engine. That, in flip, brought on the engine to function at a better temperature than it was rated for.
The corporate stated that parts “downstream and within the neighborhood” of the overheated engine malfunctioned, which led to the untimely shutdown of the engine.
Within the assertion, Virgin Orbit famous that the investigation into the Jan. 9 launch failure is ongoing. “All probably credible situations, together with the one described above, are being investigated,” the corporate said. “Quite a few checks are underway to help the investigation and assist result in definitive conclusions.”
The corporate didn’t disclose when it anticipated that investigation to be full, or when it could be prepared to aim one other launch. It stated that “all credible causes of the failure shall be addressed” earlier than the following launch, which is able to happen from Mojave Air and House Port in California for an unidentified business buyer.
“Our investigation isn’t but full; the crew is tough at work and we’ll pursue the trigger and contributors to wherever the system evaluation takes us,” Hart stated within the assertion. “Nevertheless, with many clear clues from in depth information evaluation now understood, we’re modifying our subsequent rocket with a extra strong filter and we’re trying broadly to guarantee that every one credible contributors to mission failure are rooted out and addressed.”
The corporate, publicly traded on Nasdaq, has not introduced when it should launch its monetary outcomes for the fourth quarter of 2022 and the complete 12 months. Shares in Virgin Orbit closed down practically 2% at $1.58 Feb. 14, however rose in after-hours buying and selling after the corporate launched the assertion on the standing of the failure investigation.
