{"id":11791,"date":"2021-03-23T18:12:27","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T10:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/testbed-for-nasa-moon-mission-rides-to-orbit-with-six-other-satellites\/"},"modified":"2021-03-23T18:12:27","modified_gmt":"2021-03-23T10:12:27","slug":"testbed-for-nasa-moon-mission-rides-to-orbit-with-six-other-satellites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/testbed-for-nasa-moon-mission-rides-to-orbit-with-six-other-satellites\/","title":{"rendered":"Testbed for NASA moon mission rides to orbit with six other satellites"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Rocket Lab\u2019s Electron launcher lifts off from New Zealand at 6:30 p.m. EDT (2230 GMT) Monday, or 11:30 a.m. local time Tuesday at the launch site. Credit: Rocket Lab<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rocket Lab launched seven satellites Monday from New Zealand on a rideshare mission serving the U.S. and Australian militaries and space services startups. A spacecraft developed in-house by Rocket Lab was also aboard to prove out technologies for a NASA moon mission launching later this year.<\/p>\n

A carbon-composite Electron launcher, fed by kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants, fired off Rocket Lab\u2019s privately-owned launch pad on the North Island of New Zealand at 6:30 p.m. EDT (2230 GMT) Monday.<\/p>\n

The nearly 60-foot-tall (18-meter) rocket climbed through a cloud deck over the launch base in New Zealand, where liftoff occurred at 11:30 a.m. local time Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Nine Rutherford engines on the Electron\u2019s first stage fired for about two-and-a-half minutes before the booster jettisoned to fall into the Pacific Ocean east of the launch site. A single Rutherford engine on the Electron\u2019s second stage propelled the rocket into a preliminary transfer orbit before separation of a kick stage to perform the final orbital placements for the payloads.<\/p>\n

The kick stage\u2019s Curie engine ignited around 49 minutes after liftoff to reach a planned 341-mile-high (550-kilometer) orbit inclined 45 degrees to the equator, the destination for five of the seven satellites aboard the mission. The kick stage then deployed the five CubeSat payloads before reigniting for two more burns to lower its altitude to around 279 miles (450 kilometers).<\/p>\n

Once in that orbit, the mission\u2019s largest payload \u2014 an optical Earth observation satellite for a Seattle-based company called BlackSky \u2014 separated from the kick stage. Rocket Lab then planned to transition the kick stage into an extended mission mode, using solar arrays to generate electricity for several months of its own technology demonstrations focused on proving out spacecraft systems for NASA\u2019s CAPSTONE small satellite mission launching to the moon later this year.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Rocket Lab engineers work on the company\u2019s \u201cPathstone\u201d mission, an Electron rocket kick stage converted into a spacecraft platform for long-lived operations in orbit. Credit: Rocket Lab<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rocket Lab, headquartered in Long Beach, California, declared the mission a success in a post-launch press release. The mission was Rocket Lab\u2019s second launch of 2021, and the company\u2019s 19th Electron launch since 2017. The satellites on Monday\u2019s mission pushed Rocket Lab over 100 satellites launched to date.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations and welcome to orbit for all of our customers on Electron,\u201d said Peter Beck, Rocket Lab\u2019s founder and CEO. \u201cReaching more than 100 satellites deployed is an incredible achievement for our team and I\u2019m proud of their tireless efforts which have made Electron the second most frequently launched U.S. rocket annually.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s mission was a flawless demonstration of how Electron has changed the way space is accessed,\u201d Beck said in a statement. \u201cNot only did we deploy six customer satellites, but we also deployed our own pathfinding spacecraft to orbit in preparation for our moon mission later this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

BlackSky\u2019s new satellite is the seventh spacecraft in the company\u2019s growing constellation of Earth observation platforms. Built by LeoStella, a joint venture between Thales Alenia Space and Spaceflight Industries, the new satellite weighs around 121 pounds, or 55 kilograms.<\/p>\n

BlackSky has now launched seven Earth-imaging microsatellites since 2018 \u2014 one on an Indian rocket, three on SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, and three with Rocket Lab. The company confirmed Monday night its ground team established contact with the BlackSky 7 spacecraft after launch.<\/p>\n

Each of the current generation of BlackSky spacecraft can capture up to 1,000 color images per day, with a resolution of about 3 feet (1 meter), from orbits around 280 miles (450 kilometers) above Earth.<\/p>\n

BlackSky is building a constellation of 16 to 24 microsatellites to collect high-resolution imagery for sale to commercial and government customers, including the U.S. military.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A previous BlackSky satellite being prepared for launch on a Rocket Lab mission in 2019. Credit: Rocket Lab<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other satellites on-board this mission \u2014 which Rocket Lab has nicknamed \u201cThey Go Up So Fast\u201d \u2014 included two CubeSats built by Tyvak, a small satellite manufacturer in Southern California.<\/p>\n

Tyvak built one of the briefcase-size satellites \u2014 Centauri 3 \u2014 for Fleet Space Technologies, an Australian company that is planning a network of 140 small satellites to provide data relay and tracking services to the energy, utilities, and mining industries.<\/p>\n

The other Tyvak-built spacecraft on Monday\u2019s mission is named Myriota 7 for the Australian company Myriota, which is planning its own network of small data relay satellites.<\/p>\n

There was also a small satellite mission developed by researchers at the University of New South Wales\u2019s campus in Canberra, Australia. The M2 spacecraft, which will split into two separate smallsats once in orbit, is managed in collaboration with the Royal Australian Air Force.<\/p>\n

The two M2 satellites will fly in formation, and is \u201cone of the most complex CubeSat programs ever attempted,\u201d said Russell Boyce, director of UNSW Canberra Space, a research and development unit at the university.<\/p>\n

The satellites were almost entirely built in Australia, with optical telescopes supplied by a company in the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cSupporting Australia\u2019s space situational awareness, the data captured by M2 can inform maritime surveillance, weather observations and low-orbit satellite traffic,\u201d officials wrote in a press release about the M2 spacecraft. \u201cThis information is processed through advanced in-orbit artificial intelligence, on a platform reconfigurable throughout the mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we depend on space infrastructure for resource management, secure communications and data collection during extreme weather events and bushfires, building our sovereign space capabilities is critical for Australian security,\u201d Boyce said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two satellites will be able to communicate with each other, as well as ground stations back here on Earth, giving better quality data, with greater detail and less lag time \u2013 all fundamentally important for Australia\u2019s defense,\u201d said Air Vice-Marshal Cath Roberts, Head of Air Force Capability. \u201cThis innovative home-grown approach has been designed to meet Australia\u2019s unique requirements for sovereign space capability.\u201d<\/p>\n

A small satellite for the U.S. Army\u2019s Space and Missile Defense Command also launched Monday. The Gunsmoke-J satellite is the latest in a series of nanosatellites to \u201cdemonstrate advanced information collection in direct support of the Army combat operations,\u201d the service says on its website.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A Care Weather Technologies CubeSat. Credit: Care Weather Technologies<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The smallest CubeSat on Monday\u2019s missions is the first satellite for a commercial weather startup in Utah named Care Weather Technologies. The \u201cVeery Hatchling\u201d spacecraft is a 1U CubeSat \u2014 a bit larger than a Rubik\u2019s cube \u2014 that could pave the way for a fleet of nanosatellites providing wind measurements over the world\u2019s oceans, a key input to weather forecast models. Care Weather Technologies says it built the spacecraft in just three months.<\/p>\n

The kick stage on the Electron rocket launched Monday doubles as its own satellite.<\/p>\n

The Pathstone mission will test an upgraded version of Rocket Lab\u2019s Photon spacecraft design, which itself is derived from the Electron rocket\u2019s kick stage, for NASA\u2019s CAPSTONE mission scheduled for launch later this year. CAPSTONE will collect data on the radiation environment around the moon in the same type of orbit that NASA\u2019s planned Gateway space station will use later in the 2020s. It\u2019s a precursor mission for NASA\u2019s Artemis moon program.<\/p>\n

According to Rocket Lab, Pathstone is the company\u2019s second Photon spacecraft to launch after debuting the satellite platform in August 2020. The new Photon variant is designed for missions to the moon and beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Photon will build up flight heritage by demonstrating a new avionics stack, software, radio, sensors, actuators, custom solar panels, and more,\u201d Rocket Lab says. \u201cWith in-house manufactured reaction wheels and a control system representative of what we\u2019ll use for CAPSTONE, Photon Pathstone will demonstrate the precision pointing required for this mission\u2019s multiple Hyper Curie (engine) burns. Photon Pathstone\u2019s new radio will also showcase how we\u2019ll communicate with the spacecraft at lunar distances and provide valuable ranging data.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA selected Rocket Lab to launch the CAPSTONE mission from the company\u2019s new launch facility at Wallops Island, Virginia.<\/p>\n

Rocket Lab did not attempt to recover the Electron\u2019s first stage on Monday\u2019s mission. Beck said Monday that Rocket Lab\u2019s next booster recovery is scheduled later this year on one of the company\u2019s upcoming launches.<\/p>\n

The rocket assigned to the next booster recovery features an upgraded heat shield to better withstand the extreme conditions atmospheric re-entry, Beck said.<\/p>\n

Rocket Lab recovered an Electron booster for the first time last year, when a rocket stage successfully parachuted intact into the Pacific Ocean downrange from the New Zealand coast. Eventually, Rocket Lab wants use a helicopter to catch the boosters as they descend under a parachute, then refurbish the rockets and reuse them.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rocket Lab\u2019s Electron launcher lifts off from New Zealand at 6:30 p.m. EDT (2230 GMT) Monday, or 11:30 a.m. local time Tuesday at the launch site. Credit: Rocket Lab Rocket Lab launched seven satellites Monday from New Zealand on a rideshare mission serving the U.S. and Australian militaries and space services startups. A spacecraft developed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[304,1812,404,1813,1814,1815,291,1608],"class_list":["post-11791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-artemis","tag-australia","tag-blacksky","tag-blacksky-7","tag-capstone","tag-centauri-3","tag-commercial-space","tag-cubesats"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11791"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}