2022年11月24日

ABL空间系统公司在阿拉斯加发射台上的RS1火箭。美国ABL空间系统公司的新型小型卫星发射器在阿拉斯加的首次试飞被推迟到不早于12月，原因是技术问题缩短了上周的三次发射尝试。ABL在阿拉斯加科迪亚克岛的太平洋航天港进行了为期一周的发射期间进行了三次倒计时，试图将该公司的第一枚RS1火箭发射升空，这是一种轨道级发射器，旨在将超过一吨的有效载荷送入近地轨道。RS1火箭高88英尺(27米)，是一系列私人研发的小型卫星发射器中最新的一款。ABL的目标是加入火箭实验室、维珍轨道公司、萤火虫航空公司和阿斯特拉公司，成为新一代成功将有效载荷送入轨道的商业公司。这些公司在第一次尝试时都没有成功进入轨道。ABL公司没有为其首次轨道发射尝试提供任何公众可访问的实时视频报道，但该公司定期在Twitter上发布更新。11月14日的发射尝试在发射时间前30分钟左右被取消，原因是在RS1第一级推进剂装载过程中出现意外数据，后来发现是由加压系统中的阀门泄漏引起的。11月17日的第二次发射尝试在t - 1.8秒时被取消，当时它的9个煤油燃料E2第一级发动机点火。ABL表示，触发中止的原因是液氧的调节问题，液氧是RS1火箭上使用的低温氧化剂。 Another countdown Monday, Nov. 21, also aborted during engine startup sequence. That was the final launch attempt available to ABL until the company’s next series of launch dates begins Dec. 7. In recent months, ABL teams at Kodiak have completed a static test-firing of the RS1 rocket’s first stage and a series of fuel loading demonstrations to prepare for the first test flight. The two-stage rocket is capable of placing a payload of nearly 3,000 pounds (1,350 kilograms) into a low-altitude equatorial orbit, or about 2,138 pounds (970 kilograms) into a 310-mile-high (500-kilometer) polar orbit, according to ABL. The RS1 rocket’s lift capability puts it on the upper end of the range of new small satellite launch providers, slightly exceeding the performance of Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket, which reached low Earth orbit on its second test flight Oct. 1 following launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Firefly’s Alpha rocket deployed its CubeSat payloads into a lower-than-expected orbit, and the small satellites soon re-entered the atmosphere. Rocket Lab’s Electron booster, Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne, and Astra’s Rocket 3 launch vehicle have smaller payload capacities. Astra has retired its Rocket 3 vehicle and is now developing a larger launcher called Rocket 4. ABL says a dedicated launch on its RS1 rocket costs $12 million, more than the price of a Rocket Lab mission but below the price of a larger rocket such as SpaceX’s Falcon 9. The scale of the RS1 rocket is “small enough to simplify development, manufacturing, and operations, but large enough to deliver a per-satellite launch cost at a fraction of a smaller vehicle,” ABL says. Founded in 2017, ABL is headquartered in El Segundo, California, and is backed by venture capital funds and money from Lockheed Martin. ABL reported a valuation of $2.4 billion last year during its most recent fundraising round, with a backlog of more than 75 missions, primarily from a bulk order of up to 58 launches from Lockheed Martin. ABL also has a contract to launch a NASA small satellite tech demo mission, and is one of 13 companies in NASA’s roster of providers for venture-class launch services. The U.S. Space Force added ABL to its roster of 11 companies eligible to win contracts to launch the military’s small satellite payloads over a nine-year period. For its first test flight, ABL’s RS1 rocket will fly south from Kodiak Island over the Pacific Ocean with two small shoebox-size CubeSats for OmniTeq, a Texas-based company that provides rideshare launch services with plans to deploy a constellation of small satellites to provide maritime communications services. ABL aims to release the two small satellites into a polar orbit.