New Delhi: The Hanbit-Nano ‘Spaceward’ mission lifted off at 10:13 hours Korean time on 23 December from the Alcântara Space Center (CEA) in Brazil. At
the time of liftoff, the propulsion was normal, but the rocket started veering off course about 30 seconds into the flight. Following international safety standards, the ground teams took the call to make the rocket fall to the ground and explode. The procedure was carried out in accordance with the pre-installed safety system. There was some minor damage to peripheral facilities at the launch site, which was restored to a safe state under the guidance of the Brazilian Air Force.
The safety procedure was designed to prevent greater damage in case of an unexpected situation emerging during the launch. The vehicle was precisely controlled to fall within the designated safety area. This was supposed to be the first commercial flight of the rocket. Innospace has committed to learn from the mishap, and improve the technology. The flight was originally scheduled to take place on 15 December, but was delayed to 22 December, and then delayed again because of unfavourable weather conditions. A number of new technologies were included compared to the previous test flights to enhance the reliability of the launch vehicle.
Indian Payload on Board
The Hanbit-Nano is a 21.7 metre tall two-stage to orbit (TSTO) rocket, capable of carrying payloads up to 90 kg to an altitude of 500 km. There were eight payloads on board, five of which were small satellites designed to be deployed by the upper stage, with three hosted payloads that would remain attached. The payloads were from Brazil, South Korea and India. One of the payloads on board was the Solaras S2 technology demonstration nanosatellite by the Bengaluru-Based New Space Startup Grahaa. Grahaa aims to deploy an Earth observation constellation to provide on-demand geospatial videos in near realtime.
