AEROSPACE

Lockheed Martin Discloses Cause of Launch Failure: Burning hydraulic fluid doomed the maiden flight of the company’s new commercial rocket, setting back Lockheed Martin’s campaign to break into a growing market for low-cost launches of small satellites, a manager said. Oil vented outside the rocket from a hydraulic steering system was ignited by exhaust flames and burned near an electrical cable, causing the LMLV-1 rocket to roll end-over-end, said Howard Trudeau, a vice president for engineering for the Bethesda, Md., company. The rocket was ordered to self-destruct 160 seconds after its Aug. 15 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, after it turned away from its planned trajectory and toward Baja California.