Announcing OTF-2/ OrbITech Returns

It's been awhile. A little over 6 months, to be precise, since the last OrbITech test announcement. Back then, it was for our first ever test flight of the Magellanic 1(or any LV for that matter), which as you may know, succeeded in reaching a temporary Low Droo Orbit; however, a throttle control issue caused the second stage to spin wildly, failing to achieve a stable orbit as well as failing to deploy the test payload.

Over the last 6 months, we've gone through everything with a fine toothed comb and solved many of the issues with our first flight. Nearly every part of the Magellanic 1 has been upgraded to a higher standard of quality. New electronics and sensors, redesigned pre-burners for the engines provided by Jundroo Aerospace, better gimbal mounts, and much more.

In fact, much of this was accomplished months ago. "So, why then, has it taken so long to get to this point," you might ask? Two answers:

1.) Our existing flight software proved too unreliable and flawed for our uses, and as such needed a complete rework. Writing adequate code and implementing the software in real life takes time, especially when your software engineers have to take a crash course in Orbital mechanics, and your "rocket scientists" need a crash course in programming.

2.) Rockets are hard to build and require a massive amount of established infrastructure. At the time we conducted OTF-1, we had only just begun operations in our new main production facility, and had actually built our first test vehicles in rented space at RPL(Rocket Propulsion Labs).

It took over 9 months to build a single prototype vehicle(the one used in OTF-1) at that time. We've since managed to bring that down to about two months per launch vehicle, and plan to decrease that time still as we ramp up production.

LV-002(slated for OTF-2) took slightly less than 4 months to complete, while LV-003 took only 2 months to complete. LV-004 and LV-005 are currently under production and are both expected to be complete within 3 weeks.

With two vehicles currently ready, we plan to conduct a third test before the end of the year, followed up by more tests early next year.

Thanks for your continued support!

PS: The tentative schedule for OTF-2 will be in a pinned comment below