[imagesource:here]

Launching rockets isn’t for the faint-hearted, and even those who eventually succeed endure some fails along the way.

Elon Musk once released a greatest hits video of SpaceX’s most spectacular fails, and they seem to have sorted out those follies in the long run, so perhaps there is hope for this team of students from the University of the KwaZulu Natal.

Their first attempt at launching a “home-grown research rocket” ended with a bang yesterday, and not the good kind, as the Phoenix 1B Mark 2 didn’t quite reach the desired height of 15 kilometres.

Just how badly did it fail? Let’s go to the footage:

Here’s SA’s DST funded (i.e. paid for with your tax money) attempt at getting a rocket 15km up into the sky.
North Korea eat your heart out. pic.twitter.com/e1RSp87Wal

— 6000 (@6000) February 18, 2019

Oh dear.

I mean the height reached is bad enough, but the explosion really puts the cherry on top.

More information via Business Insider:

The sounding rocket (a rocket that carries instruments and performs scientific experiments) lifted off around 14:30 from the Denel Overberg Test Range in the Western Cape.

The launch was supposed to usher in a new era of research for Africa. If it had managed to reach the expected 15km it would have beaten a South African record as the highest hybrid rocket the country has ever sent into the sky…

Before plummeting back to Earth, the Phoenix-1 contained an advanced paraffin wax and aluminium powder fuel, that improves performance beyond conventional fuels like rubber or plastic.

It was uniquely equipped with hybrid rocket motors, designed by the universities’ Aerospace Systems Research Group, as opposed to conventionally-used solid rocket motors.

It’s not all bad news, though, with the programme having developed two sounding rockets prior to the explosion of the Phoenix 1B Mark 2.

The Phoenix-1B Mark 1, which is being developed by former postgraduate student Udil Balmogim, is set to undergo flight testing next year.

UKZN’s team says that they will learn from the failed launch, and the Department of Science and Technology says that “the lessons learnt from this experiment will go toward making the Mark 1 launch a success”.

I guess time will tell.

[source:businsider]