Romanian Aeronautics Association ARCA Launches First Local Space Rocket

The Romanian Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Association (ARCA) Friday successfully launched the first Romanian space rocket, Helen 2, off the Black Sea coast, ARCA president Dumitru Popescu told a news conference Monday.

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The launch represents a first flight operated by ARCA within the Google Lunar X Prize competition which gathers teams striving to send a robot to the Moon.

Popescu said the launch on October 1 follows several unsuccessful attempts in November 2009 and August 2010.

By successfully launching Helen 2, ARCA has become the first team of the 22 competitors in the Google Lunar X Prize which operated a space flight.

The rocket was transported to security zone LRD Helen, off the Black Sea cost. A hot-air balloon lifted the rocket to an altitude of 14,000 meters, at a maximum speed of 120 km/h.

When the balloon reached the needed altitude, the team activated the rocket's engine which ran for 30 seconds and propelled Helen 2 to an altitude of 40,000 meters, the highest altitude ever reached by a space object entirely designed and produced in Romania.

Helen 2 is a completely ecologic rocket whose engine runs on oxygenated water.

Popescu said the team will carry out new tests next year, when two more launches will take place.

The Google Lunar X Prize was launched in 2007 and is an international competitions which aims at sending to the Moon a robot tasked with taking photos and transmitting video images. The wimner of the competition will be awarded a $30 million prize.

The Romanian Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Association, a non-governmental organization and leader in the airspace research field, entered the Google Lunar X Prize contest in 2008. ARCA is developing the lunar orbiter HAAS and the spherical orbiter ELE.

The space rocket Helen was scheduled for launch in 2009, off the Black Sea coast, but adverse weather conditions led to postponing the launch until this year.

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