Space /

Successful first ‘hot fire’ test at spaceport

Freya Deyell

21 May 2024 07:53

A rocket stands on a launch pad emitting smoke and preparing for liftoff, with a coastal landscape and ocean in the background.

Image: RFA

GERMAN company Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) launched its ‘hot fire’ testing campaign at SaxaVord last week.

Earlier this month, the company shared that it had successfully assembled the first part of its rocket on the Fredo launchpad.

Now RFA has announced that its first hot fire campaign was successful too.

“We hot-fired a total of four Helix engines, igniting one by one at four second intervals,” the company said on X (formerly Twitter).

“All engines ran simultaneously for 8 seconds with a total hot-fire duration of 20 seconds. The test ran flawlessly through start-up, steady-state and shutdown.

“With this hot fire, we were able to demonstrate that we can nominally operate and control our first stage and all its systems, as well as a cluster of Helix engines.”

It concluded that the company is looking towards test flights at SaxaVord as well as ones in Germany, Portugal and Sweden.