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deep blue aerospace released a statement: at 13:40 on september 22, the first high-altitude vertical recovery flight test of the "nebula-1" rocket was carried out at the ejin banner spaceport of deep blue aerospace in inner mongolia. the recyclable and reusable first-stage rocket body had an abnormality in the final landing phase of the flight test. among the 11 major test verification tasks,ten items were successfully completed, one item was not completed, and the test mission was not completely successful.

the "xingyun-1" rocket that performed this flight mission is deep blue aerospace's first commercial liquid rocket that can enter orbit and be recycled and reused. the rocket body has a diameter of 3.35 meters and the height of the first stage is about 21 meters. this flight test is my country's first high-altitude recovery test of a launch vehicle that can enter orbit. the core mission objectives of the test are: to verify the correctness and coordination of the work of each system in the vertical recovery phase of the "xingyun-1" after entering orbit, especially to verify the multi-machine to single-machine variable power working condition for the first time in flight, and to accumulate key data for the subsequent 100-kilometer recovery flight test, as well as the final orbit entry and recovery test missions.

during the test, the rocket took off according to the predetermined procedure with three engines ignited. after reaching the predetermined height, the engines on both sides were shut down, and the rocket relied on the thrust of a single engine to stabilize its attitude and slow down its ascent. after reaching the highest point, it relied on the thrust adjustment of a single engine to descend smoothly, moved sideways about 200 meters, and successfully unlocked, deployed and locked the landing legs at a predetermined height above the recovery site. however, an abnormality occurred during the final landing shutdown stage, resulting in partial damage to the rocket body.

the entire flight test lasted 179 seconds. before shutdown, the error between the rocket body and the theoretical landing point was less than 0.5 meters. the rocket body landed precisely at the center of the recovery site. the flight mission profile was consistent with the planned procedure. the entire process of test preparation and implementation was within the scope of the preliminary safety control plan. after the test, post-processing was carried out in accordance with the planned emergency handling process. no safety issues occurred throughout the process.

after a preliminary retrospective analysis of the test process data, deep blue aerospace said that during the final landing shutdown phase, the engine thrust servo followed the control command abnormally, causing the rocket body to land at a height exceeding the design range and partial damage to the rocket body. the technical team will complete the mission "zeroing" as soon as possible, and based on the summary of this test and the zeroing of technical faults, it will perform another high-altitude vertical recovery mission in november.

source: beijing daily