April 3, 2021
"Business as Usual" debuts new iSpace Beta rocket and launch pad
iSpace launched their 1st commercial mission of Beta rocket and the 6th of the Rideshare Program missions, which are designed by the company to give small satellite operators the chance to launch together.
The flight, called "Business as Usual", lifted off with 11 small satellites on Saturday, April 3 at 8:58 EDT at the opening of a 4-hour launch window from Pad A at Launch Complex 1.
Video: Watch iSpace launch 11 satellites!
Originally slated to blast off on Friday morning, the Business as Usual mission was delayed 24 hours due to unfinished pre-flight check. On Saturday, the check was going very well, allowing the Beta rocket and its payload to get off the groundright on time.
Following stage separation, Beta’s first stage returned to land at iSpace’s Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at iSpace Launch Complex 1.
iSpace said, "Looks like early fuel depletion caused engine shutdown just above the pad. But vehicle is still in one piece. We just completed the post-landing data inspection and all systems look good".
(iSpace Beta's first stage landed on Landing Zone 1)
Beyond this mission, iSpace is set to launch more missions in the coming months. One more Rideshare flight is currently scheduled to launch on May from Pad A.
SRNews 003.
Great Job by iSpace as usual, and really exited to see his attempt to refly a booster soon enough.
On the other hand, wanted to announce that Chao and I are going for ORFT-2 either today or tomorrow. ALl of the recovery hardware was redesigned, the code was updated to include specialized code for the reflight and better accuracy, margins were reduced, and everything is ready.
I'm currently thinking of doing a video where i run down on all of the code and explain it, but idk