A suborbital launch from Spaceport Nova Scotia by Dutch company T-Minus Engineering has been pushed into November as a result of a port strike in Europe which delayed shipping.
The launch of the suborbital vehicle which was planned for late this month, is now likely to happen in the latter half of the November. Maritime Launch Services (MLS), who own and manage Spaceport Nova Scotia, would not confirm when in November the launch would be, saying it was pending confirmation of a launch window by Transport Canada and arrival of the suborbital vehicle.
Originally T-Minus Engineering had planned on doing two suborbital launches of their Barracuda hypersonic test platform. SpaceQ queried MLS for a reason why there would only be one launch and we’re told that T-Minus had not finished manufacturing the second suborbital vehicle yet.
The Barracuda hypersonic test platform “is a single-stage, solid-fuel suborbital vehicle that stands approximately 4 metres tall. It features a booster with a diameter of 200 millimetres and a payload compartment measuring 1000 millimetres. Barracuda can carry payloads of up to 40 kilograms to altitudes reaching 120 kilometres.”
The Barracuda launch is expected to surpass the Kármán line, the acknowledged boundary of space, and reach a speed of over Mach 6. While the test launch will include payloads, details on how many and what type of payloads has not been released.
Story update: We’ve added the reason for only one launch in November by T-Minus.
Related