Sometimes you try to get to outer space — but then the top of your rocket falls off. It happens.
No, really: on Thursday, Australian startup Gilmour Space was forced to call off the maiden launch of its Eris rocket when, just hours before it was supposed to lift off, the nose cone that protects its payload unexpectedly deployed and toppled to the ground, Ars Technica reports. (There aren't photos of the disastrous scene, unfortunately.)
"During final launch preparations last night, an electrical fault triggered the system that opens the rocket's nose cone," Gilmour posted on LinkedIn, as quoted by Ars. "This happened before any fuel was loaded into the vehicle. Most importantly, no one was injured, and early checks show no damage to the rocket or the launch pad."
Standing around 82 feet tall, Eris is a modestly sized, three-stage rocket designed to carry small satellites to space, with a maximum payload capacity of around 1,100 pounds. It was set to lift off from a private spaceport in Queensland early Friday morning, local time.
It was a highly unfortunate setback for the startup. Had the launch been successful, the feat would've marked the first all-Australian rocket to ever reach orbit.
A rocket's nose cone, specifically a payload fairing, is designed to protect the top of the vehicle where its payload is stored as it barrels through the Earth's atmosphere. Once the rocket reaches space, the fairing, if it follows a conventional clamshell design, splits into two halves before getting jettisoned.
Payload fairing failures aren't very common, and when they happen, it's usually because the nose cones don't separate properly. One of the most infamous examples occurred during NASA's Gemini 9 mission in 1966, when astronauts were attempting to dock the spacecraft with a practice target. As it approached, one half of the clamshell fairing got stuck partially open, resembling, as one astronaut remarked, the gaping maw of an "Angry Alligator."
For a nose cone to screw-up because it was deployed before even leaving the launchpad is pretty bizarre. Thankfully, Gilmour told Ars in a statement that it has a replacement ready at its factory in Gold Coast. But it's waiting for a "full investigation" into the incident to conclude before sending it over and installing it on the rocket, which appears to be undamaged.
"While we're disappointed by the delay, our team is already working on a solution and we expect to be back at the pad soon," Gilmour told Ars.
No official timeline has been given on how long that will take.
More on spaceflight: NASA Spacecraft Runs Into Thruster Trouble En Route to Zillion-Dollar Asteroid
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