Rocket engines, especially new ones, sometimes just don’t do what they’re supposed to do. Copenhagen Suborbitals tested their HEAT-2x rocket engine this last Saturday, but the engine failed the test. Rocket science is hard.
For those who didn’t see this last Saturday’s post, Copenhagen Suborbitals is an all-volunteer launch agency out of Denmark that ultimately wants to launch people safely into space. They have quite the inventory of rockets and were attempting to increase their inventory and capability with this last HEAT-2X rocket engine test. As you can see in the video below, the rocket engine didn’t do so well. For those of you new to rocket launches, flames should really only be shooting out of rocket’s bottom, not its sides. There’s more information about this failure, with accompanying pictures of the failed booster, on Copenhagen Suborbital’s site.
While the failure is a setback, the internally motivated volunteers will probably keep working towards their goal of getting a human safely into space. People like that don’t stay down for long. This is evidenced by an apparent willingness to leave HEAT-2X behind and move on. In the video, the narrator mentions that Copenhagen Suborbitals is working on a new rocket and engine design.
It took them a year to build the HEAT-2X, which, when you consider the team consists only of volunteers, is pretty astonishing. I don’t doubt they will be successful in getting a new rocket design built and successfully tested.
Again, if you want to contribute, then for as little as $10 (my original post said $20, but it’s really $10, sorry), you can help Copenhagen Suborbitals move along from this failure. Just go to this part of Copenhagen Suborbitals’ site to contribute.
The Mad Spaceball 