FAILURE - Jilin-1 Mofang-01A (?) - SQX-1 - Jiuquan - August 3, 2021 (07:39 UTC)

[Galactic Penguin SST]

More rumors and it looks like the Chinese have the same situation as the previous PSLV failure in August 2017: the payload fairing did not separate but the upper stack still ended up in orbit.

Here's the full quotes from two different members:

Member A:

* The rocket *did* enter orbit but "an important step failed to execute"

* This was later specified as "some important protective parts seems to have not separated and ended up in orbit too"

* He further clarified that "I heard one big object ended up in orbit".

Member B: "I have heard about what happened & it's pretty ridiculous...I'll let you all guess what that is."

Edit: Alternative versions do exist, one of which says the 3rd stage motor "burned out early": https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4666154004517823

[Galactic Penguin SST]

Xinhua has issued statement that after liftoff at 07:39 UTC "the rocket did not flew as planned & the (not named) satellite did not enter nominal orbit after separation; flight test objectives not achieved".

I don't know how that fit with previous rumors.

http://finance.people.com.cn/n1/2021/0803/c1004-32180358.html

[otter]

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2021-08/03/c_1310105568.htm

Flight test of China's commercial carrier rocket fails
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-03 22:42:50

JIUQUAN, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- The flight test of the third Hyperbola-1 commercial carrier rocket was unsuccessful.

Abnormal performance was identified during the flight of the rocket, which lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 3:39 p.m. (Beijing Time) on Tuesday.

The satellite, carried by the rocket, did not enter orbit as scheduled.

[Yiosie]

Satellite onboard appears to have been Jilin-1 Mofang-01A (吉林一号魔方01A), per spaceflightfans.cn:

http://www.spaceflightfans.cn/event/hyperbola-1_y5

Mofang (魔方) translates to Rubik's Cube.

First of a fourth-generation of Jilin-1 satellites, detailed here:

https://new.qq.com/omn/20210529/20210529A03LLU00.html

Google translate:

Judging from the current news, the Jilin No. 1 series of optical satellites developed by Changguang Satellite Technology Co., Ltd. have been confirmed to have developed to the fourth generation of products. The Jilin-1 Rubik’s Cube 01A optical satellite using the fourth-generation technology has a total weight of only 18 kilograms and the resolution of the photos taken can reach the level of one meter. Compared with the 420 kilograms of the original Jilin-1 optical satellite, there is a significant reduction in the total weight. , Which makes the fourth-generation Jilin-1 satellite have a more powerful one-shot multiple-satellite launch capability. At the same time, it also has the advantages of ultra-compact optical system design technology, ultra-lightweight and high-precision optical processing technology, multi-mode photoelectric imaging technology, and on-orbit AI information processing technology. The overall performance improvement is unprecedented.

[limen4]

[jcm]

The characters 魔方  are being translated as 'Rubik's cube' but the individual characters seem to mean more generally 'magic cube' (or 'magic square').  Can any of the native Chinese speakers here comment on the sense of the word?

[Galactic Penguin SST]

In the end after half a day nothing related to this launch has been found in orbit by 18SPCS. One of the sources quoted above reaffirmed the fairing failed to separate & stated final velocity was 7400 m/s, which would be just shy of a relatively stable orbit.

[Galactic Penguin SST]

The characters 魔方  are being translated as 'Rubik's cube' but the individual characters seem to mean more generally 'magic cube' (or 'magic square').  Can any of the native Chinese speakers here comment on the sense of the word?

I think both are correct ("magic cube" is how you would translate it literally for 魔術方塊).

This is not universally used across Chinese speaking regions though, here in HK we call it something that would translate to "dice on a tantrum". 

[otter]

https://twitter.com/AJ_FI/status/1422781661733851136

iSpace confirms that the payload fairing did not separate properly, meaning the satellite could not reach its intended orbit. Rocket otherwise performed well. No TLEs for the object either. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/NGkDVjdGexqfCjeJz5rCDw

[Alter Sachse]

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/NGkDVjdGexqfCjeJz5rCDw


"On August 3, 2021, at 15:39:30, the Double Curve 1 Remote 5 launch vehicle ignited and lifted off at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China. The analysis of telemetry data showed that the rocket's solid motors of the first, second, third and fourth sub-stages, liquid attitude and orbit control power, navigation guidance and control were working normally, the attitude was stable throughout, the separation between all levels and star-arrow separation were normal, and the flight timing was basically consistent with the theoretical timing. Because the fairing did not separate normally, the satellite was not sent into the 500 km SSO orbit, and the flight test did not achieve the expected purpose. The launch further verified the correctness of the overall scheme of the Double Curve-1 rocket, obtained effective flight data and accumulated valuable lessons learned."

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[russianhalo117]

Gunter on his website reports two payloads not one: Jilin-1 Mofang-01A / Tianshu
https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_chr/lau2021.htm

[limen4]

Gunter on his website reports two payloads not one: Jilin-1 Mofang-01A / Tianshu
https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_chr/lau2021.htm

I cannot find any chinese source which reports about a second payload. I only know that the second SQX-1 rocket launched on February 1st was named Tianshu (Book of Heaven).

[Galactic Penguin SST]

Updates on failure investigation:

https://twitter.com/cosmic_penguin/status/1459568713145798658

[Galactic Penguin SST]

https://twitter.com/aj_fi/status/1459570545670959106?s=21