Chinese private space company Deep Blue Aerospace (to the extent that China can have private companies in strategic industries) has almost landed its reusable Nebula-1 rocket, which was undergoing high-altitude testing at the Ejin Banner Cosmodrome in Inner Mongolia. This was reported by ArsTechnica. The video of the tests taken from drones is really impressive.
Nebula-1 ascended to an altitude of 5 km and then attempted to land on the prepared site. The rocket hovered just above the pad, released its landing legs, and began its descent. Unfortunately, the engines shut down early, and the rocket fell from a height of several meters and exploded.
Drone footage from Deep Blue Aerospace's VTVL attempt today. Great view of the landing and explosion. https://t.co/jlZhrYRLMI pic.twitter.com/rne1aT5566
Drone footage from Deep Blue Aerospace's VTVL attempt today. Great view of the landing and explosion. https://t.co/jlZhrYRLMI pic.twitter.com/rne1aT5566
— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) September 22, 2024Deep Blue Aerospace said it had learned a lot from the test, meeting 10 of the 11 main objectives. The next high-altitude test flight is scheduled for November 2024.
Deep Blue Aerospace is one of a number of Chinese aerospace startups that have been created over the past few years, including Linkspace, iSpace, Galactic Energy, and Space Pioneer. They aim to replicate SpaceX's success with vertical takeoff and landing of reusable rockets. Therefore, Deep Blue Aerospace's experiments imitate SpaceX's tests of the Grasshopper test bench a decade ago. But Chinese engineers have already made some progress.
Full video pic.twitter.com/B8rzldKE5N
Full video pic.twitter.com/B8rzldKE5N
— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) September 22, 2024