AFRL launched Rocket Cargo in 2021 to explore delivering cargo through space, a process the lab said would be faster and would allow the Pentagon to more easily reach remote or contested areas. SpaceX became the first company to win a contract under the program in 2022, when AFRL awarded the firm a five-year, $102 million deal. Blue Origin, Sierra Space, and Rocket Lab have since signed on, but the lab had not announced any experiments or tests until now.<\/p>\n
The Oct. 20 mission used a SpaceX capsule fitted with instrumentation to measure temperature, shock, and vibration, and carried agile cargo pod designs built for various delivery loads. AFRL did not specify how many pods or how much equipment were included and did not immediately respond to a query. Its release said each pod carried equipment and sensors to monitor the payload’s status through launch and reentry, with special attention paid to electronics including a satellite communication-enabled tracker, batteries, the desalinator, survival gear, and emergency medical equipment.<\/p>\n
The SpaceX capsule used in the test is called Starfall. In May, the Federal Aviation Administration released an environmental assessment for Starfall operations in the Pacific Ocean, describing it as a cylindrical capsule approximately 0.75 meters tall with a diameter of 3.1 meters and a weight of 2,100 kilograms, capable of carrying 1,000 kilograms of payload for a total weight of 3,100 kilograms. In June, SpaceX launched what it called a Starfall Demo Mission, which ended with the capsule splashing down in the Pacific. It is unclear whether AFRL had any payload in the earlier mission or whether the capsule from the Oct. 20 flight was recovered.<\/p>\n
Adam Remaly, director of AFRL’s Technology Transition Office, called the test a success. “This was a critical achievement to demonstrate the potential of Rocket Cargo delivery for point-to-point rapid global mobility for the future force,” Remaly said. “The cross-discipline collaborations and ability to unleash the speed of our defense industrial base are key to maximizing capability and winning the future.” AFRL said the program could one day deliver supplies to contested environments and austere sites without access to runways and roads, including for contested logistics, expeditionary operations, rescue operations, disaster relief, and response to chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear hazards.<\/p>\n
AFRL’s release noted that engineers measured the capsule during the Oct. 20 test to potentially include a life raft in future tests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AFRL launched Rocket Cargo in 2021 to explore delivering cargo through space, a process the lab said would be faster and would allow the Pentagon to more easily reach remote or contested areas. SpaceX became the first company to win a contract under the program in 2022, when AFRL awarded the firm a five-year, $102 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91261,"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":[],"class_list":["post-91260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91260"}],"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=91260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}