While I understand why the various economic / commercial forces behind this audacious idea don’t want to share materially adverse information that might tank (Northrup Grumman, SpaceX, or some other) stock prices, it is not really kosher, to not explain at least the broad outlines of the nature of this failure to deploy event.
Did the under-wing rocket’s brackets jam — preventing deployment? Did the L-1011 fail to reach altitude? Did the space payload offer errant readings, prior to the drop zone? We likely won’t know what “reviewing the data” entails — for a few months yet.
In any event, here is the entirety of the morning’s very terse news update, out of NASA:
…[UPDATED @ 9:35 pm Thursday] Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus team has completed its review of Thursday’s launch attempt and identified a software issue that affected Pegasus navigation performance, which prompted a launch abort before Pegasus was released from the L-1011 aircraft. The system worked as intended by safely stopping the sequence, and a software update has been implemented. The Pegasus rocket and L-1011 remain healthy….
The launch of Katalyst’s robotic servicing spacecraft on Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL rocket from Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, was postponed Thursday. After takeoff of the L-1011 aircraft carrying the Pegasus XL, a launch vehicle issue temporarily prevented teams from deploying the rocket.
The date of the next launch attempt for this mission to boost NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory will be determined after teams have reviewed data from today’s attempt….
Space is… indeed, hard. Onward, smiling — just the same.
नमस्ते
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