By Park Si-soo
SEOUL, Dec. 9 (Sankyung Today) -- South Korean rocket startup Innospace is planning to launch its suborbital technology demonstration rocket, HANBIT-TLV, later this month, which will validate the company’s hybrid rocket engine that uses liquid oxygen and paraffin-based propellants.
While the company sets Dec. 14-21 as a launch window at the Alcântara Space Center in northern Brazil, the exact date and time will be decided after consultations with the Brazilian air force, the company said.
HANBIT-TLV, a 16.3-meter, single-stage test rocket, is a precursor to the company’s planned commercial satellite launcher Hanbit-Nano, a two-stage small satellite launcher designed to carry up to a 50-kilogram payload to a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit.
The first stages of the two rockets are powered by a 15-ton-thrust hybrid rocket engine that uses liquid oxygen and paraffin-based propellants. Hanbit-Nano’s upper stage is equipped with a 3-ton hybrid engine.
Aboard HANBIT-TLV is an inertial navigation system, called SISNAV, developed by the Brazilian Department of Aerospace Science and Technology (DCTA) under the supervision of the Brazilian Air Force. In April, the company signed an agreement with the Brazilian Department of Aerospace Science and Technology to launch SISNAV on the rocket in exchange for use of Alcântara Space Center, operated by the Brazilian air force.
The payload is a navigation device that uses a computer, motion sensors and rotation sensors to continuously calculate by dead reckoning the position, the orientation, and the velocity of a moving object without the need for external references. The payload won’t be deployed from the rocket in the test, according to the company’s spokesperson.
“This test flight of HANBIT-TLV suborbital rocket will serve as an important step to enter the small satellite launch service market," Kim Soo-jong Kim, CEO of Innospace, said in comments provided by the company.
Founded in 2017, Innospace has raised 35.2 billion won through three financing rounds: $1.2 million in a seed round that closed in October 2019; $6.6 million in Series A in January 2021; and $19.7 million in s Series B in July 2021. The company is working on another round of financing.
Major investors include South Korea’s venture capital Kolon Investment, Company K Partners, Intervest, and car materials manufacturer Kolon Glotech.