Rocket Lab Launches 13 Cubesats on 1st Mission for NASA
Rocket Lab's ramp-up is going well so far. The spaceflight startup launched 13 tiny satellites on its first-ever mission for NASA early this morning (Dec. 16), just a month after acing its first commercial flight.
A Rocket Lab Electron booster lifted off from the company's launch site on New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula at 1:33 a.m. EST today (0633 GMT and 7:33 p.m. local New Zealand time), kicking off the ELaNa-19 mission for NASA. Fifty-three minutes later, all of the payloads had separated from the Electron's "kick stage" and settled successfully into a circular orbit about 310 miles (500 kilometers) above Earth.
Educational Launch of Nanosatellites.
Also at Engadget.
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Rocket Lab launches dedicated DARPA mission on Electron
Rocket Lab is aiming for a rapid launch cadence in 2019, and begun that campaign with the first Electron launch of the year. The window to launch the R3D2 mission for DARPA was to open on Sunday at 22:30 UTC for four hours. However, a scrub was called for at least 48 hours due to a "video transmitter 13dB down with low performance" – while forecasted high winds moved the launch two days to the right, to Thursday. That attempt proved successful with an ontime launch.
The Radio Frequency Risk Reduction Deployment Demonstration satellite is a technology demonstration mission for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the United States government's military technology development agency. The mission was the first Electron launch dedicated to a single satellite on board, lofting the 150 kg spacecraft into a circular orbit, inclined 39.5 degrees, at an altitude of 425 km.
R3D2's mission is to qualify a prototype membrane reflect-array antenna, designed to improve radio communications in small spacecraft. On board is a compacted Kapton membrane antenna built by MMA Design, which deploys to 2.25 meters in diameter once in orbit.
DARPA hopes R3D2 will validate concepts for space-based internet as well as communications capabilities for the United States Department of Defense. Radio systems aboard R3D2 were built by Trident Systems, and the payload is mounted on a spacecraft bus built by Blue Canyon Tech. Northrop Grumman is the mission's prime contractor and integrator.
Also at SpaceFlight Insider and The Verge.
Previously: Rocket Lab Mission for NASA Successfully Launches 13 CubeSats
Rocket Lab, known for its Electron smallsat launcher, will also build satellites it launches for customers:
Rocket Lab, one of the biggest startups in the NewSpace category of companies providing launch and satellite services, has added satellite manufacturing to the array of services it offers to customers.
The company, which already had developed launch capabilities and has begun sending payloads into space, can now deliver fully built satellites to its customers, according to a statement.
The "Photon" satellite platform was developed so that customers would not have to build their own satellite hardware.
"Small satellite operators want to focus on providing data or services from space, but building satellite hardware is a significant barrier to achieving this," said Rocket Lab founder and chief executive Peter Beck, in a statement. "The time, resources and expertise required to build hardware can draw small satellite operators away from their core purpose, delaying their path to orbit and revenue. As the turn-key solution for complete small satellite missions, Rocket Lab brings space within easy reach. We enable our customers to focus on their payload and mission – we look after the rest."
Also at Space News and The Verge.
See also: Rocket Lab building spacecraft to pair with its rockets, likely saving start-ups millions of dollars
Previously: Rocket Lab's Modest Launch is Giant Leap for Small Rocket Business
Rocket Lab Mission for NASA Successfully Launches 13 CubeSats
Rocket Lab Successfully Launches R3D2 Mission for DARPA
Rocket Lab plans to merge with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), become a publicly traded company, and develop a medium-lift partially reusable rocket. "Neutron" would be competitive with SpaceX's Falcon 9 and capable of launching cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station.
The funding from the SPAC merger will enable another new initiative. Rocket Lab said it is working on a medium-class launch vehicle called Neutron, capable of placing up to 8,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit, more than 20 times the capacity of Electron. The company disclosed few technical details about Neutron, but said that it intends to make the first stage reusable through propulsive landing on an ocean platform, similar to SpaceX's recovery of Falcon 9 first stages.
The new vehicle is intended to support the growing interest in satellite megaconstellations. "Neutron's eight-ton lift capacity will make it ideally sized to deploy satellites in batches to specific orbital planes, creating a more targeted and streamlined approach to building out megaconstellations," Beck said in the statement.
Rocket Lab had previously resisted building a larger vehicle. "There's no market for it," Beck said during a side session of the Smallsat Conference in August 2020. "If you build a larger rocket, you relegate yourself to being purely rideshare, and rideshare is really well-served."
The first Neutron launch is scheduled for 2024 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia. The vehicle will leverage the infrastructure the company built at Launch Complex 2 there for the Electron rocket, which will make its debut from that pad later this year. Rocket Lab said it's "assessing locations across America" for a factory that would handle large-scale production of Neutron.
Previously (company history as seen on SN):
Rocket Lab Unveils "Electric" Rocket Engine
Moon Express and Rocket Lab Team Up for 2017 Lunar Mission
New Companies Begin to Target the Micro-Satellite Market
"Planet" Purchases 3 Launches from "Rocket Lab"
Rocket Lab Makes Suborbital Launch From New Zealand
Launch of Rocket Lab's Second "Electron" Rocket Due Dec. 7-8
Rocket Lab's Second "Electron" Rocket Launch Succeeds, Reaches Orbit
Rocket Lab's Electron Rocket Launched "Humanity Star", a Temporary Source of Light Pollution
Rocket Lab Set to Launch Commercial Payloads on April 20
NASA Awards Launch Contracts to Rocket Lab and Virgin Orbit
Rocket Lab Plans to Build its Next Launch Site in the US
Rocket Lab to Build U.S. Launch Site at Wallops Island, Virginia
Rocket Lab's Modest Launch is Giant Leap for Small Rocket Business
Rocket Lab Set to Launch its First Payloads for NASA
Rocket Lab Mission for NASA Successfully Launches 13 CubeSats
Rocket Lab Successfully Launches R3D2 Mission for DARPA
Rocket Lab Will Build Satellites for Launch Customers
Rocket Lab Will Attempt to Recover First Stages Using a Helicopter
Rocket Lab's Guided Reentry Test Moves Company Closer to Partially Reusable Rockets
NASA Selects 18 Research CubeSats as Secondary Payloads; Rocket Lab Will Send CubeSat to Lunar Orbit
After a Second Stage Failure, Rocket Lab Loses Seven Satellites
Rocket Lab Will Resume Missions in August Following Launch Failure
Rocket Lab Secretly Launched its Own Company-made Satellite on Latest Flight
(Score: 4, Funny) by ikanreed on Monday December 17 2018, @07:12PM (8 children)
AKA platonic solid space junk.
Oh sure just because they have no ability to maintain charge for long periods, no radio or scientific equipment with high utility, no purpose other than vanity projects for people who want their name in space, I shouldn't be so mean to them.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Monday December 17 2018, @08:06PM (7 children)
https://www.space.com/34324-cubesats.html [space.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Cube_One [wikipedia.org]
Most of what you said isn't true. Or was it a "joke"?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday December 17 2018, @08:09PM (6 children)
Yeah you can get some low-grade utility from them, but, from your own article
Their payoff-to-space-junk ratio is real real real bad.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday December 17 2018, @08:20PM (5 children)
IDK the specifics, but it seems that a radar retro-reflector would be a reasonable thing to require a cube-sat to implement, making their radar signature MUCH larger than their actual size.
I also feel that it is past time to start a space junk collection and disposal initiative, either collect it as a resource, or send it into the ocean to get it out of the way. There are still booster stages from the 1960s up there, clearly visible from the ground with the naked eye. Cubesat sized ;-) solar powered ion engines could be attached to stabilize their roll and slowly collect them into a common orbit.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday December 17 2018, @08:29PM (4 children)
It's not that it can't be done, but I feel like your solution is simplistic and has unanswered questions.
Changing orbits with discrepancies measured in the 10s of thousands of kph using solar ion engines? And where's the particle source for this ion engine? Are we launching a dozen Olympic swimming pools of water? Or do we have some magic space-based recycling program that chops the space debris into atom-sized pieces and ionizes them and ejects them? Maybe if we put a couple percent of world GDP into space development?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday December 17 2018, @09:41PM (3 children)
Yeah, that's my favorite idea, but a big bag of fuel attached to the engine is probably more practical.
That's long overdue, as Stephen Hawking would tell you if he could.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday December 17 2018, @09:50PM (2 children)
I like it, but my own list of megaprojects that require several percent of world output (each) isn't short:
*eradicate worldwide poverty
*solve the upcoming antibiotic failure
*create worldwide managed fisheries
*cut energy-based-carbon emissions to zero in 20 years(cows and concrete are followups), with some first world subsidization of the third world getting green energy infrastructure
*Maintain and expand status quo good ideas, like national parks and mass transit
*And yes, space development
It's easy to say "Space is the future" but not baking the earth to death is a pretty good trial run for being able to terraform effectively.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Tuesday December 18 2018, @12:29AM
Nonsense! It is precisely the demonstrated ability to completely alter the entire ecosystem, atmosphere and weather patterns on this planet that we can be convinced we can pull it off on another one!
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday December 18 2018, @12:31AM
Social science has a long way to go to catch up with rocket science in terms of predictable and controllable outcomes.
The failure itself is rooted in social problems, this brief 50 year period of "mastery over the microbes" might be destined to wink out just as fast as it winked in if we can't get control over our use of antibiotics.
Amen. https://www.half-earthproject.org/ [half-earthproject.org] Massive investment not really needed, massive social change however is essential to success.
That's a lot of specifics for things that are notoriously difficult to quantify on global scale. We need to move in that direction (social/economic problem) quickly (bigger social/economic problem), but even if I were grand emperor of Gaia and everybody did what I said just because I said it, this would be a tough thing to pull off without major ego bruising of today's power elite.
Repeating: https://www.half-earthproject.org/ [half-earthproject.org] and mass transit really only makes sense in dense cities, which, if we pack all the people in half the land area should be a natural outcome.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end