this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2025
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https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cz93xzv3njjo

The first orbital rocket made and designed in Australia crashed 14 seconds after lift-off during its first test launch.

Videos show the Eris rocket, launched by Gilmour Space Technologies, lifting off the ground before losing momentum and crashing.

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[–] npdean@lemmy.today 12 points 1 day ago

Congratulations nonetheless. Everyone fucks up the first time. They will get it the next time.

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

Is it because it still went up?

[–] stupidcasey@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Must be easy to get into space down there.

Yes! The hard part is staying on earth!

[–] Fleur_@aussie.zone 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] i_am_hiding@aussie.zone 2 points 22 hours ago

Is that common?

[–] trolololol@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Have they tried aiming the pointy bit upwards?

Ooooh maybe that was the problem!

[–] vk6flab@lemmy.radio 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

After this effort, the camera operator for the first shot in the video needs a new job. Perhaps something less complicated that doesn't involve movement, like say filming a rock.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Wish it said the purpose of this test. I can find what payload it can carry and that it's end goal is to carry payloads to suborbital space, but was the purpose here to just test if it could get off the ground? For it to go up and suddenly stop going up it has to lose power somewhere, unless the purpose of the test was actually to get off the ground and bring it back down where it was and it strayed off the pad. Which if that was the case, it's a much harder task and I'd expect them to have a few tries

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 1 points 21 hours ago

It was that damned cocky again, wasn't it

[–] b3an@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It looks like one of the rockets at the bottom, is unable to deploy a consistent thrust. It’s kinda sputtering.

[–] mycelium_underground@lemmy.world 2 points 21 hours ago

Yeah it no longer was producing enough chamber pressure to produce mach diamonds in the exhaust. It will be interesting to see if they release the root cause analysis.

[–] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago