Last month, the parachutes on Hélène Huby's small spacecraft failed to deploy, and the vehicle and its cargo crashed into the ocean on Earth.
It was both a success and a failure.
The success was that after Huby founded The Exploration Company in Europe, she managed to move nimbly with the "Mission Possible" spacecraft such that it cost less than $25 million to build and reached space in less than three years. The vehicle ticked off a number of successes in spaceflight before making a controlled descent through the atmosphere.
A European company that seeks to develop orbital spacecraft for cargo, and eventually humans, took a step forward this week with a test flight that saw its "Mission Possible" vehicle power up and fly successfully in orbit before making a controlled reentry into Earth's atmosphere.
However, after encountering an "issue," the Exploration Company lost contact with its spacecraft a few minutes before touchdown in the ocean.
In an update on LinkedIn Tuesday morning, the company characterized the test flight as a partial success—and a partial failure.
© The Exploration Company
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