Twenty-four hours after the failure of Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne, California startup ABL Space Systems’ lightweight RS1 launcher missed its maiden flight.
Unexpected engine shutdown
On January 10 at 23:27 UTC, the light launcher
RS1
from the Californian startup
ABL
Space
Systems
(founded in 2017 in El Segundo) took off from the base of
Codesin Alaska, for a first demonstration flight designated Demo-1.
The two-stage craft carried two cubesats
6U,
VariSat