German rocket builder Rocket Factory Augsburg has completed a full-mission hot fire test of its Redshift upper stage. The stage will now be sent to SaxaVord ahead of an inaugural RFA ONE flight later this year.
The RFA ONE is a three-stage rocket that is designed to be capable of delivering up to 1,300 kilograms to low Earth orbit. It will initially be launched from SaxaVord Spaceport in Scotland, but the company has also received permission to launch RFA ONE flights from a new commercial launch facility being built at the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana.
On 17 July, Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) announced that it had completed a hot-fire test of a fully integrated Redshift orbital transfer vehicle (OTV), which will act as the rocket’s multi-use upper stage.
The Redshift hot fire test was a full mission simulation that included a 590-second initial burn, a 40-minute simulated coast phase, and a 30-second orbit circularization burn. The test’s successful completion has qualified the stage for flight. It will now be shipped to SaxaVord for payload integration ahead of the inaugural RFA ONE flight, which is expected to be launched later this year.
In addition to qualifying its upper stage for flight, RFA has also completed qualifying its second stage following a full-duration hot fire test in June. 2023 It also conducted a short hot-fire test of the rocket’s first stage featuring just four of nine Helix engines. The company is currently preparing for a nine-engine hot-fire test of its first stage.
