Shoot! Rocket Lab takes off from another potential target while India joins the exclusive Satellite Shooting Club • The Register

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Roundup US Vice President Mike Pence asked NASA to put shoes on the Moon before Trump's second term 2024 is out, last week showed how much space can be difficult.

Electron launches (finally)

After repeated delays, Rocket Lab, publisher of the slogan "A frequent and reliable launch is now a reality", managed to get another Electron out of its launch platform New Zealand.

The launch, at 23:27 on March 28 UTC, marked the company's 25th satellite delivered into orbit and the fourth successful launch of the company's Electron rocket (the first was to be destroyed after the loss of in-flight telemetry).

The 150 kg payload, DARPA's Radio Frequency Risk Reduction Deployment Demonstration Mission (R3D2), is designed to qualify a new type of network antenna. This antenna, which will deploy up to 2.25 meters in diameter, should allow smaller spacecraft to knock over their weight in terms of communication capability.

This is the first launch of Rocket Lab for more than three months, but the company is optimistic about increasing the pace and claims a backlog for a launch every four weeks.

This is an ambitious goal as this mission spent four days on the platform, while the engineers replaced a video component and waited for the weather to improve.

Peter Beck, CEO and founder of Rocket Lab, was naturally delighted with his performance and congratulated his rocket team: "Congratulations to our dedicated team for providing another important and innovative asset in the space – at the same time. time and on time. "

The 17m electron rocket can weigh up to 225kg, although the "nominal" rated load is 150kg, which can be delivered in a 500km synchronous Sun orbit.

Although gangs are proud of the pace of their upcoming launches, they are also good citizens in orbital debris. The second floor of the Electron was left in a highly elliptical orbit, which will bring it back into the atmosphere in a short time, while the Kick Stage used to send the satellite to its final destination is capable of to run its own combustion of desorbite. .

After the deployment, of course.

The antics of the outdoor battery continue at the ISS

Nick Hague and Christina Koch, NASA astronauts, ventured out of the International Space Station (ISS) on March 29 to continue the work of replacing batteries at the orbital outpost.

The spacewalk started at 07:42 EDT, when the Nauts replaced their suit with a stack and headed out. According to NASA, Koch is only the fourteenth woman to walk in space.

The team plugged in three lithium-ion batteries (replacing six nickel-hydrogen units) and also put things in place to allow robotics specialists to remove one of the new batteries installed during the previous spacewalk and to replace it with two of the old ones. The new battery, it seems, does not load properly.

Even though Anne McClain of NASA may have missed this opportunity, she will also perform on April 8 with David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency. The duo should add redundant power to Canadarm2's robotic arm and attach cables to provide better coverage of wireless communications outside the ISS.

The launch of OneSpace becomes one of the most ardent

OneSpace, the hope of a commercial launch in China, suffered a setback, the maiden flight of its OS-M vehicle seemingly ending when things were going well, shortly after the separation of the first step.

The company's Twitter Hole has been silent about what has actually happened, although amateur images show that things are going south about a minute after launch.

The launch followed two sub-orbital tests. The confidence was such that everything would be fine. The 19-meter rocket, which boasts a 48-hour electronic launch preparation time, can reach an orbit of up to 205 kg in a low or low Earth orbit with a 42 ° tilt 100

It is hoped that the company will take to heart the experiences of other commercial rocket companies, such as Rocket Lab and SpaceX.

The first SpaceX Falcon 1 did not even cross the threshold of one minute. He let himself go in a spectacular way in 2006 thanks to a fuel leak.

A little more than 13 years later, the company is about to launch its second Falcon Heavy.

Latest news: India knows how to break objects in orbit

Finally, the Indian Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) announced on March 27 that the country had joined the small group of nations able to blow up satellites. To do this, he pointed a ballistic missile defense (BMD) interceptor on an unfortunate Indian satellite and crushed the thing.

Or, as the Indian Ministry of Defense has said, "the mission has fulfilled all its objectives".

The reaction to the launch of the three-stage missile was relatively silent. After all, unlike China's efforts in 2007, the Indian satellite was in a low orbit and debris is expected to return in a few weeks or months. Not years, as with the demonstration of China.

And the demonstration is. The aforementioned United States, Russia and China have all demonstrated their ability to shoot things in predictable orbits. India can now join the anti-satellite club, ready to knock out the orbital infrastructure of an adversary in wartime.

But if things get so bad, orbital debris will be the least of our problems. ®

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