Tag: Crashed

Slingshot 1 Provides Aerospace Corp with Demonstration of Satellite Integration

Space News reports that through the Slingshot 1 mission, the Aerospace Corp. “has demonstrated how open standards and nonproprietary interfaces can help streamline satellite integration and operation.” Aerospace Slingshot Payload Operator David Hinkley said that after more than a year of on-orbit operations, Slingshot “has been a huge success.” The 19 Slingshot payloads “were developed independently and integrated in a couple of weeks prior to launch in July 2022 of the 12-unit cubesat on a Virgin Orbit LauncherOne rocket.” Speedy integration “was possible thanks to Handle, a modular plug-and-play interface that allows payloads to draw power from the satellite bus and to communicate with the satellite and other payloads.”
Full Story (Space News)

Vertical Aerospace’s Air Taxi Prototype Appears to Have Crashed

Aerospace America reports that a remotely piloted air taxi prototype “appears to have crashed during testing at the company’s Flight Test Centre at Cotswold Airport, based on photos posted online by local journalists.” Vertical Aerospace confirmed that its VX4 all-electric “experimental prototype” was involved in an “incident” at the test center, and said “there were no injuries.” The statement “was made in a note filed today to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).” Vertical is “required to reveal ‘results of operations’ and other significant developments to SEC because its shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange.” The company told the SEC, “Our flight test programme is designed to establish the limits of the aircraft’s performance, and the incident occurred during an uncrewed test of the aircraft’s maneuverability during a motor failure test scenario, which is a key requirement to progress to crewed operations.”
Full Story (Aerospace America)