In-Flight Qualification of the Suborbital Microgravity Platform in Brazil

Abstract

The Suborbital Microgravity Platform (PSM) is the first Brazilian suborbital payload developed to be launched using the Suborbital Vehicles VSB-30, with two stages, or VS-30, with one stage, both also fully Brazilian. This platform was designed to allow performing scientific and/or technological experiments, lasting 6 to 8 minutes in a microgravity environment, through suborbital ballistic flight and experiments recovering at sea. In addition to serving as a platform for holding experiments to meet the government demands of the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) Microgravity Program, the PSM also has enormous potential to meet national and international private demands for carrying out scientific, technological, and commercial experiments in microgravity environment. Regarding its in-flight qualification, the PSM was launched by the Suborbital Booster Vehicle VSB-30, on October 23, 2022, from the Alcântara Launch Center (CLA) in Brazil. This article presents a summary of the PSM in-flight qualification, which includes: its description, the main stages of its development and a descriptive summary of the telemetry monitoring, whose data were received and decoded in real time by the PSM Launch Control Unit (BC-PSM). The successful qualification and flight performance of the PSM, in conformance with project requirements, demonstrated the compliance of mission flight events, and thus, enable Brazil technologically to carry out microgravity experiments in a suborbital space environment with a recoverable platform.