Rio de Janeiro.- The South Korean company Innospace launched a rocket from the Alcântara Center, the space base that Brazil has in the Amazon, but two minutes after takeoff, it lost the signal from the device due to an unexplained anomaly, which frustrated what would be the first commercial launch of a space vehicle from Brazilian territory.
The Hanbit-Nano rocket, 21.8 meters high and loaded with five small satellites that it would leave in orbit, took off at 10:13 p.m. local time this Monday (1:13 GMT on Tuesday) from the Alcântara Launch Center, the space base operated by the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) in the Amazonian state of Maranhao.
The operation was broadcast live by Innospace on social media and appeared successful, but less than two minutes after the launch a message appeared warning that an anomaly had been registered and the company lost the signal from the rocket.
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Despite versions according to which the rocket exploded for unknown reasons and witnesses who said they heard the explosion, neither Iannospace nor the FAB clarified what happened.
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The vehicle was launched this Monday after five postponements, as its launch was initially scheduled for December 17, and it took off right on the last day of the so-called launch window, that is, the period with ideal conditions for the operation.
The first postponements were decided due to the detection of technical problems in the rocket, initially in the fuel oxidizer cooling system, and the last one, on the afternoon of this Monday, was due to bad weather conditions.
The Hanbit-Nano, weighing 20 tons, was designed to transport nanosatellites to low Earth orbit, located at an altitude of about 300 kilometers.
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The South Korean rocket carried eight payloads in its warhead, since, in addition to the five small satellites, it transported three experimental devices developed by institutions and companies from Brazil and India.
Innospace is a South Korean startup that produces small satellite launch vehicles and signed a contract to use the Brazilian base as a platform to send satellites on behalf of different countries.
The Alcântara Launch Center is located near the Atlantic Ocean and in a low-density Amazonian region a few kilometers from the Equator, conditions that allow it to offer great advantages to anyone interested in placing satellites in space.
Due to its strategic geographical position, just 2 degrees south of the Equator and closer to the geostationary orbit, the Brazilian base guarantees a saving of about 30% on the fuel used for launches.
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Brazil for now has no plans to resume its project to develop a national rocket that can commercially offer itself as a satellite launcher.
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The project to build a Satellite Launch Vehicle was abandoned in 2015 due to financial problems, but it had already received a mortal blow in 2003, when the explosion of a rocket built in the country and scheduled to be launched the next day destroyed part of the base and left 21 dead.
