FORKS — Space Transports Corp., competing to launch a manned suborbital tourism spacecraft off the North Olympic Peninsula coast by year’s end, is scheduled to launch a ninth test rocket in about a week, a company representative said Monday.
Eric Meier, Space Transport vice president, said a launch last Friday was only unsuccessful because the 10-foot-tall rocket’s third stage failed to fire on time.
Company president Phillip Storm, however, was quick to say the launch was a positive learning experience that has led to a problem solved.
Storm and Meier are competing for the $10 million X Prize, and face several other entrants from a across the nation.
Using data relayed back by the rocket’s modem, the problem was found and will be corrected for the next test launch, the Space Transport team’s ninth attempt.
The small-scale rocket tests have helped Space Transport perfect its electronics system.
The electronic glitch Friday morning turned out to be a timer that reset the rocket engine’s ignition system for the third stage.
That forced manual firing of the engine, but all too late, said Meier and Storm.
“The main thing we were able to find is where it reset its timer,” Meier said.
The University of Washington Olympic Natural Resources Center will host the Space Transport aerospace engineers during a public forum Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Storm and Meier will discuss their current projects, including the suborbital tourism vehicle entry in the X Prize competition.
Olympic Natural Resources Center is at 1455 S. Forks Ave., across from Forks Municipal Airport on the south edge of town.
The public is welcome to attend, and refreshments will be served.
Contact Ellen Matheny at 360-374-3220, Ext. 228, or via e-mail at ematheny@u.washington.edu.