Thread by @rfa_space

2021 has been exciting! We’ve signed our first customer for our maiden flight, reached crucial milestones in our launcher development & our #community grew rapidly. So we want to quickly introduce ourselves to our new followers and recap with the long-time #supporters ⬇️ 1/12

RFA was founded in 2018 to disrupt the #NewSpace industry and match the emerging demand for launch opportunities for small #satellites by providing launch services that are reliable, highly customizable, low-cost and deliver the payloads precisely to the desired orbit. 2/12

Our launch vehicle #RFAONE is a 30m high and 2m wide 3-staged rocket, launching satellites of up to 1350 kg into polar orbits/up to 450 kg into GTO. The main structural elements consist of tanks made of a special stainless steel, which becomes very tough at #cryogenic temp. 3/12

Our first stage is propelled by nine of our in-house developed oxygen-rich staged combustion engines running on RP-1 and LOX, each providing 100kN of #thrust and with a specific impulse of 325s. The second stage features a single engine optimized for vacuum. 4/12

The third stage is driven by an yet undisclosed green #bipropellant. It is able to precisely deliver payloads into the desired orbits and then stay in orbit for months, conducting satellite service missions before safely de-orbiting and burning up in the atmosphere. 5/12

Over the last year, we have made great #advancements in technology development and production of parts that will fly on the first launch of RFA ONE. Testing these components isn’t just an important verification of our calculations, but also quite exciting! Let’s take a look! 6/12

We successfully tested our in-house developed oxygen rich staged combustion #engine in July. With stable combustion over the entire 8-second burn time, a thermal steady-state was achieved across all components, which is considered #proof that an engine is fully #functional. 7/12

In August, we conducted a cryogenic pressure #test with our first stage prototype. We have verified the structural strength of our tanks under the extreme conditions of being filled with liquid nitrogen (-197°C). Deliberately, we then tested the #limits and made it burst. 8/12

In March we moved our headquarters to a new building in Augsburg worthy of being called a #Factory. This is where most of the development and production is done. But RFA also has #subsidiaries in Portugal and on the Azores, mainly working on the orbital stage of the rocket. 9/12

At the @SSCspace Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden, we have another team conducting engine tests. Our first launch will be from Andøya, Norway. However, we are also in promising discussions with other launch sites such as #Kourou and the German GOSA project. 10/12

On the way to our first launch of #RFAONE we have already accomplished a lot, but there is more work to do that we are already excited about. The next big #milestones will be long duration hot fire tests of our staged combustion #engine and integrated system tests. 11/12

That concludes our little #summary. We are happy about all our new followers and try to be as open and #transparent as possible and share our #journey with you. There is still a lot to show and tell!

Una ad astra! 🚀

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