UP Aerospace officials are plowing through launch data trying to figure out why their SpaceLoft XL rocket failed to deliver on its September 25 suborbital mission from New Mexico’s Spaceport America. All systems were fine on the payload-packed rocket until nine seconds into the flight.

According to Jerry Larson, President of UP Aerospace, the entire rocket — from nosecone to airframe to motor to fins — remained structurally sound up through apogee and down to its desert crash.

Radar data from the White Sands Missile Range, Larson said, confirms that the rocket was traveling on a correct trajectory towards space. “If it continued to fly on the same trajectory for just another three seconds, and thus exiting the densest portion of the atmosphere, it would have continued on its way into space. All of the velocity and trajectory requirements were right on the mark for a fully successful space flight.”

Spaceport America has also created an Anomaly Investigation Board to look into the mishap.