On September 5th, Blue Arrow Aerospace released an explanation on the zeroing situation of the improved version of the Zhuque-2 Y3 carrier rocket flight test mission. On the afternoon of August 30, 2025, Blue Arrow Aerospace organized a review meeting for the zeroing of flight faults in the improved version of the Zhuque-2 Y3 carrier rocket. After questioning and evaluation by experts, it was unanimously agreed that the problem was accurately located, the mechanism was clear, the fault reproduction was completed, the improvement measures were effective, and a generalization was made, which can be zeroed.
The Zhuque-2 improved Y3 carrier rocket ignited and took off at 9:17 am on August 15, 2025 at the Dongfeng Commercial Aerospace Innovation Test Zone. The first stage of the rocket flew normally, and the separation of the first and second stages was normal. After the ignition of the second stage, all systems worked normally and the fairing separation was normal. After 258 seconds of rocket takeoff, the voltage of the secondary servo power supply bus dropped abnormally, causing the rocket's attitude to become unstable. The autonomous safety control system on board the rocket self destructed, resulting in the failure of the flight test mission.
After the malfunction occurred, the company immediately established a zeroing working group to conduct a detailed analysis and investigation of the failure of the Y3 flight test mission, organize flight telemetry data analysis, test simulation, and fault diagnosis verification tests. The process of zeroing is transparent throughout, leaving no risks or doubts. Throughout the process, the progress of zeroing is continuously reported to the supervisory and management units, task clients, and important stakeholders.
After analyzing telemetry data, conducting detailed simulation calculations, and conducting rigorous troubleshooting tests, the failure of the improved version of the Zhuque 2 Y3 was located in the low pressure environment of the rocket's second stage flight, where the high-power 450V DC power supply bus of the second stage execution circuit driver experienced arc discharge short circuit, resulting in control actuator failure and flight failure.
Blue Arrow Aerospace stated that it will deeply learn from the lessons of this flight failure and take this as an opportunity to further adopt a series of control measures, strengthen risk process management, enhance the development and production quality process control of outsourced products, further improve the reliability of the company's model mission launch and flight, and make every effort to ensure the success of subsequent missions.
