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Rocket Lab Electron rocket launches from New Zealand on Thursday (US time) with an experimental payload for a US military research and development agency to demonstrate the performance of a compact and deployable antenna that could expand the communication capabilities of future small satellites.
This 17-meter high rocket, powered by nine Rutherford main engines printed in 3D and powered by kerosene, took off from its launch pad on the North Island, New Zealand, at 19:27. EDT (23:27 GMT) after a four-day delay to give crews time to replace a video transmitter and wait for better weather conditions.
The Electron rocket is headed east from the Rocket Lab commercial space port on the Mahia Peninsula, where takeoff took place at 12:27 pm. local time friday. The all-black thin launcher, designed for small satellite launches and made from lightweight carbon composite materials, exploded through fragmented clouds and launched its first stage in the sea two and a half minutes after the start of his mission.
A single Rutherford engine on the second stage of the electronics turned on to accelerate into a preliminary parking orbit, then a Curie launch stage maneuvered into an almost circular orbit with an average altitude of about 425 km and a 39.5 degree tilt of the equator.
The webcast of the Rocket Lab launch came to an end after Electron's second stage engine burned about 10 minutes after takeoff, but the company confirmed that the final maneuver of the kickstart stage was unfolded as planned. The separation of the Agency's R3D2 satellite for advanced defense research projects was scheduled for approximately 53 minutes after take-off.
Officials have declared their success after the deployment of the R3D2 satellite since the launch of Curie, extending to four the number of successful launches of the Rocket Lab after the inaugural flight of the Electron test fell into orbit in 2017. R3D2 , the satellite was developed in just over 18 months, an unusually fast pace for a space mission.
"Congratulations to our dedicated team for providing another important and innovative badet in the space – on time and on time," said Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab. "The unique requirements of this mission have made Electron the ideal launch vehicle to lift the R3D2 as a dedicated payload in a high-precision orbit."
The US and New Zealand launch provider plans to speed up the pace of a launch by month later this year. Rocket Lab is building a second Electron launch pad in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia, for missions beginning later this year.
The 330-pound (150-kilogram) R3D2 spacecraft will demonstrate a new type of membrane-reflective array antenna that can be packed in a small volume to be launched on a small rocket, then deployed once in space.
The R3D2 antenna consists of a thin fabric Kapton membrane and will expand to a diameter of nearly 2.4 meters (2.4 meters) in orbit, according to DARPA.
During a demonstration mission of at least six months, engineers will monitor the deployment dynamics of the antenna and evaluate its performance.
"The antenna could allow several missions currently requiring large satellites to include broadband communications down to disadvantaged users in the field," wrote officials in a summary of the mission posted on the website. DARPA. "A successful demonstration will also help demonstrate a smaller, faster and less expensive launch capability, allowing the Department of Defense, as well as other users, to make the most of the new commercial market for small launchers." size and cheap. "
According to DARPA, the R3D2 satellite cost about $ 25 million and the agency's commercial launch contract with Rocket Lab has a value of $ 6.5 million.
"The Department of Defense has prioritized the rapid acquisition of small satellites and its launch capabilities. By leveraging commercial procurement practices, DARPA has streamlined the R3D2 mission from design to launching services, "said Fred Kennedy, Director of DARPA's Tactical Technology Office. "This mission could help validate emerging concepts for a resilient sensor and low-Earth-orbit data transport layer – a capability that does not exist today, but which could revolutionize global communications by throwing the basics of an Internet based on space. "
Northrop Grumman is the main contractor for the R3D2 mission and badembled the satellite. Blue Canyon Technologies, of Boulder, Colorado, provided the spaceship platform, and MMA Design of Louisville, Colorado built the antenna. Trident Systems, headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, designed and built the software-defined R3D2 radio, said DARPA.
MMA Design's Pantograph Expandable Reflectarray can be operated in a wide range of radio frequencies – from UHF band to Ka band – supporting broadband, voice, video and data relay missions.
The antenna is expected to reach full size about a week after launch in order to begin a series of tests for DARPA, including downlink encrypted data to US government ground terminals, the agency said in response to comments. Spaceflight Now questions.
"What we are doing as part of this mission is primarily to demonstrate a new deployable antenna with a high compaction rate," said Lindsay Millard, R3D2 Program Manager for DARPA. "An antenna has many different uses for the DoD. An example is communication. The antenna and the power you have on the satellite determine the size of the antenna you need on the ground to receive it. Thus, the larger the antenna you can have in the space, the more it can be small on the ground.
"Installing this very large antenna in a smaller satellite reduces the cost of the satellite and allows us to use different types of launchers that we might not be able to use for larger satellites," said Millard.
The mission is expected to last up to six months, but the spacecraft is designed to last 18 months.
"There are four different carbon fiber deployment mechanisms at each corner, and then a pantograph, a form that looks like an accordion, that will develop on the outside," Millard said. "Then we'll see how flat the antenna is, we'll do badessments from the ground to see what it could transmit.
"What really makes the antenna work is the copper engravings on the Kapton," Millard said. "Kapton looks a lot like cellophane you could have in an Easter basket. So it's a great place to keep the copper, which reflects the energy, and that's just been placed in the Kapton. Thus, when an electromagnetic radiation strikes the antenna, it acts as a parabola and concentrates that energy. "
The R3D2 mission was the first Rocket Lab launch by the US military and the company's first launch of a microsatellite, after earlier flights from Electron brought much smaller CubeSats groups into space.
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