The cause of the accident of the American-Ukrainian Alpha rocket was the premature stop of one of the four engines of the first stage, which was accompanied by the closing of valves in the fuel lines, the American portal reports Space.com, referring to the statement of representatives of the company Firefly.
The shutdown of one of the four power units occurred 15 seconds after the launch of the carrier. Instead of 165 seconds, the first stage worked for 145 seconds, due to insufficient thrust, not gaining the set height. Currently, the circumstances that led to the closure of the valves are being clarified.
In September, the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SCAU) revealed that Alpha was undermined due to malfunctions in its first stage. According to the statement of the space forces at the US Air Force Base Vandenberg, the carrier was blown up on September 2 "over the Pacific Ocean at 19.01 Pacific time after a successful launch at 18.59". The military stressed that there were no injuries during the incident. The rocket was supposed to put a cargo weighing 93 kilograms into low Earth orbit, including, in particular, CubeSat satellites.
Ivan Potapov