The Spanish rocket 'Miura 1′ is ready to fly

The company from Elche PLD Space has successfully completed the first qualification campaign for

, its suborbital rocket, and it is "ready to fly".

It is the first complete test of a flight mission in an integrated space vehicle that is done in Europe, explains the company.

Now, after passing all the necessary tests at its technical facilities in Teruel, "the rocket is ready for its first launch", scheduled for the end of 2022 from El Arenosillo (Huelva), they emphasize.

This qualification campaign is a series of tests with which it is intended to verify that all the rocket's subsystems work correctly to, finally, carry out a complete combined test, in charge of verifying that the rocket is ready to fly.

Although PLD Space had already examined and validated each subsystem of the vehicle, they had not yet tested all of them integrated.

planned program

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Specifically, during the campaign several function validation tests and three static ignitions have been carried out -also called

or static tests - of 5, 20 and 110 seconds - has been reduced from 122 to 110 to guarantee a safe shutdown of the engine, leaving fuel margin on board.

This last one, known as flight mission test, is essential for the future of the rocket because it simulates, without actually flying, all the conditions of a real launch.

Raul Torres, co-founder, CEO and launch director of PLD Space says they make the rocket "really think it's on its way to space."

The 110-second test roughly corresponds to the time the engine is running on a real launch.

Its main purpose is to verify that all subsystems during the simulated flight function correctly.

The information obtained in the different tests has served to corroborate that each part of the vehicle works as expected, or if not, to perfect all the parameters of the first flight unit.

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No failures in critical subsystems

The company highlights that the 'Miura 1′ campaign has been “a success” because no critical subsystem has failed.

They have been able to compile a list of “small changes” that need programmatic management.

Among them, the replacement of a component or the update of a design that needs to be improved, "but nothing critical," says Torres.

This test has been carried out after the one scheduled for July 19 was suspended only six seconds before starting.

The launch team saw a failure in the pressurization of the oxygen tank and, although everything was ready for ignition, they preferred to cancel the test manually.

When the company carried out the analysis, it obtained new information on the software and the ramp that it has already applied in the last check and the unit that will fly at the end of the year.

This test campaign is not only a milestone for PLD Space, in addition to making Europe a pioneer, it helps to place Spain in a "position of strength" in the European space race.

Next steps

The advances of the company follow the planned technical program.

Now the launch team has to analyze the data obtained and check the necessary changes for the 'MIURA 1' flight unit.

At the same time, the Operations team has already begun to manufacture the launch unit, which will incorporate what has been learned during the fire tests and will be completed in October.

After the last tests in the company's own test bench in Teruel, it will be sent to Huelva for the inaugural flight.

PLD Space engineers are already working on the final design of their 'MIURA 5' orbital vehicle, applying the information collected in this 'MIURA 1' test campaign.

The goal is to launch the first unit in mid-2024 from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

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