YazataNov 30, 2021 06:11 AM (This post was last modified: Nov 30, 2021 07:04 PM by Yazata.)
You might recall that Rocketlab has a NASA contract to put a small satellite into orbit around the Moon to map out the Moon's gravitational field. It's supposed to be launched next year on an Electron rocket.
Well, here's a Rocketlab photo of the Moon satellite. Human in the photo for scale
Edit - From the looks of those shiny spherical tanks, I think that this is a modified Photon bus, basically a little third stage that will go atop the Electron's second stage. The actual payload might not be much larger than a cell-phone, just a few inches. Plus antennas, batteries and maybe solar panels that haven't been installed yet.
The Photon actually can go interplanetary and Rocketlab has plans to send a couple of them in company funded missions all the way to Venus, a planet that's a particular interest to Rocketlab founder Peter Beck. Mars gets all the attention because it's so Earthlike, but Venus is more mysterious (if hellish). The plan seems to be to drop small cubesat sized payloads into the Venusian atmosphere.
YazataApr 7, 2022 03:51 AM (This post was last modified: Apr 7, 2022 04:02 AM by Yazata.)
They have been promising it and the time has come!
RocketLab's next launch will be an attempted booster recovery. The plan is to try to hook the descending booster's parachute by helicopter and fly the booster back to land that way for reuse. The general expectation is that it will take them several tries before they succeed at this. But it should be exciting to see how they do on their first try.
They have been practicing by dropping boosters from one helicopter and snagging their chutes with a second helicopter. I believe that they have done that successfully, so they figure it's time to try the real thing
The attempt will be no earlier than (NET) April 19. I expect that RocketLab will livestream it. The launch wlll be from RocketLab's launch complex at Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand and the booster recovery will be off the coast in the South Pacific.
YazataApr 28, 2022 06:06 PM (This post was last modified: Apr 29, 2022 04:40 AM by Yazata.)
Rocketlab's first attempt at mid-air recovering an Electron booster is scheduled for tomorrow, Friday April 29 US (Saturday April 30 New Zealand). I don't know the precise time yet.
The booster will reenter without a Falcon-style entry burn, fall and put out a parachute. Then the plan is to snag it out of the air with a helicopter and a big hook! (It isn't only Elon who has crazy ideas, so does Peter Beck.)
SpaceX doesn't plan for Starship Superheavies to use entry burns either, so it must have been established that they aren't really necessary.
Rocketlab should be posting updates on (newly liberated) Twitter
And they will have a live stream. They will show the launch and hopefully the booster recovery, but they aren't sure that the latter will work since the helicopter will be way out at sea. (There will be a support ship in the vicinity, but data connections might be iffy.) But they are gonna try.
Rocket Lab reports that their helicopter successfully hooked the booster. But... the load was destabilizing the helicopter, so its pilot elected to cut it loose and dump it into the sea.
Closeup of the engines. Booster reenters bottom first without an entry burn, but the engines appear to be in good shape. Peter Beck is pleased with how well the heat shield did. (Photo by Peter Beck)
Tomorrow Tuesday January 24, 2023, Rocketlab is scheduled to launch its very first Electron rocket from its new launch pad at Wallops Island, Virginia.
Launch time is 3 PM PST, 6 PM EST
Payload is three small Hawkeye satellites, part of a constellation of 15, intended to map radio transmissions on Earth. This is an interesting mission and an interesting company, that specializes in private geospatial intelligence. They are already active observing radio communications and jammers in Ukraine. I'm not sure who their customers would be, intelligence agencies and the military I suppose. (The US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency is the largest US intelligence agency that nobody has ever heard of.)
Nov 30, 2021 06:11 AM
(This post was last modified: Nov 30, 2021 07:04 PM by Yazata.)
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