Aussie rocket foiled by premature fairing pop

A fair dinkum disaster

Updated Australia's first homegrown rocket launch has been delayed after the vehicle's fairing unexpectedly deployed on the launchpad.

The maiden launch of the Queensland-based Gilmour Space's Eris-1 rocket had already been scrubbed once last week, owing to "an issue in the ground support system," but it was all systems go for another try on Friday.

Except it wasn't: "During final checks, an unexpected issue triggered the rocket's payload fairing."

The fairing enshrouds the rocket's payload during ascent and is usually jettisoned once the atmosphere is thin enough that there is no risk to the payload. That typically happens much higher up than the launchpad.

According to Gilmour Space, it appears that an electrical fault was to blame. While an initial assessment indicated the vehicle and ground systems were undamaged, a new fairing had to be shipped from the company's Gold Coast factory.

The incident occurred prior to fueling, and there were no injuries. Company boss Adam Gilmour said: "Our team encountered the issue before fueling and liftoff, which is exactly what ground testing is meant to do.

"The good news is our team and rocket are both fine. While we're disappointed by the delay, we're already working through a resolution and expect to be back on the pad soon."

The vehicle has since been returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building, and a delay of "at least" a few weeks is expected before the company tries again.

Gilmour Space also noted that the "Vegemite payload = safe." Vegemite is a delicious yeast-extract spread/hateful abomination (depending on taste) usually applied to bread or toast. The thought of the stuff being fired into space might appeal to some of the population.

The rocket's malfunction on the pad bears a faint resemblance to NASA's 1960 Mercury-Redstone 1 incident, an uncrewed suborbital test flight.

Whereas Gilmour Space's vehicle never got as far as a terminal countdown and fuel never flowed, the Redstone's engines ignited as planned then shut down almost immediately, meaning the rocket barely left the pad. The escape rocket then jettisoned itself and, shortly after, the parachute popped out of the capsule.

The result was a fueled and powered-up Redstone rocket sitting on the pad, with billowing parachutes threatening to topple it over. In his book, Flight, NASA's first flight director Chris Kraft recalled one engineer suggesting that the rocket could be depressurized with the help of some well-aimed shots from a rifle.

Ultimately, the decision was taken to let the fuel boil off and have a brave vice president from the Redstone rocket's manufacturer, McDonnell Aircraft, clamber into the capsule to disarm the retrorockets and turn off the rest of the systems. ®

Updated to add on May 21

Michelle Gilmour, a director at Gilmour Space, told The Register that the fairing did indeed fall away from the vehicle following deployment on the pad. Gilmour said, "We were still in the checklist phase of the countdown, so it was not a 'normal' anomaly."

Investigations are ongoing.