A survey result showed that the failure of South Korea’s autonomous launch vehicle “Cosmos” on October 21 this year was due to a design error. As a result, the second launch schedule of the “Cosmos” will inevitably be postponed from the original May of next year to the second half of the year.
South Korea’s Ministry of Science, Technology, Information and Communication (Ministry of Science and Technology) and Korea Aerospace Research Institute published on the 29th the results of an analysis of the reason why the satellite model failed to enter orbit during the first launch of the “Cosmos”. At the end of October, the Ministry of Science and Technology formed a “Cosmic Launch Investigation Committee” involving the research team of the Academy of Aerospace Engineering and external experts to investigate technical matters.
Vice President of the Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the chairman of the investigation committee, said: “In the design of the fixing device for the helium tank installed in the third-stage oxidant storage tank of the’Cosmos’, the consideration of increasing buoyancy during flight was insufficient.” The fixing device is designed to the ground standard, so it falls off during the flight. During this process, the helium gas tank flows inside the oxidizer tank and produces an impact, which eventually causes the oxidizer to burn the fuel to leak, causing the three-stage engine to extinguish early.
Post time: Jan-05-2022
