Subj : Rocket Lab Set For First Booster Catch Attempt During There And Back A To : All From : NasaSpaceFlight Date : Mon May 02 2022 21:00:04 Rocket Lab Set For First Booster Catch Attempt During There And Back Again Mission Date: Mon, 02 May 2022 19:58:52 +0000 Description: After announcing plans to recover and reuse the first stage of the companys Electron rocket The post Rocket Lab Set For First Booster Catch Attempt During There And Back Again Mission appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com . FULL STORY ====================================================================== After announcing plans to recover and reuse the first stage of the companys Electron rocket back in 2019, the California-based rocket company is now ready to attempt mid-air recovery for the very first time. The There and Back Again mission is set to launch in a launch window that opens at 22:35 UTC on May 2, delivering 34 payloads to a sun-synchronous orbit of 520km. The mission was originally scheduled to launch on April 19 but has been repeatedly delayed to wait for favorable weather for the experimental recovery attempt. The Mission The There and Back Again mission is set to launch from Rocket Lab s Launch Complex 1A, located on the Mhia Peninsula in New Zealand. The private launch complex supports two launch pads, LC-1A and LC-1B, and allows Rocket Lab the ability to increase its launch cadence from the same site. A third launch pad, Launch Complex 2 (LC-2), is located in the United States at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Virginia. LC-2 has yet to host an Electron launch, with its debut mission expected to be an Electron carrying a satellite for HawkEye 360 currently targeting December 2022. This will be the 26th Electron launch overall and the third of 2022. The mission comes just 20 days after the previous mission, Without Mission a Beat, launched on April 2 and delivered two BlackSky high-resolution Gen-2 satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO). Electron booster during launch preparations. Credit: Rocket Lab. Electron is a two-stage liquid-fueled launcher that was designed and manufactured in-house by Rocket Lab with the goal of serving the small satellite launch market. See Also Electron F26 Updates Rocket Lab Electron Forum Section L2 MasterSection Click here to Join L2 The vehicle is 18 meters (59ft) tall, 1.2 meters (~4ft) wide and is made primarily of carbon fiber composite. The first stage is powered by nine Rutherford engines and runs off RP-1 kerosene and liquid oxygen (LOX). The Rutherford engine uses an electric pump-fed cycle and is also the first rocket engine of its kind to be used on an orbital launch vehicle. The second stage also uses a vacuum-optimized Rutherford. Electron also features the ability to carry a kick stage. The kick stage is powered by the Curie engine, named after physicist and chemist Marie Curie, and is also developed and manufactured in-house by the company. Once placed into an elliptical orbit around the Earth, the kick stage separates from the second stage and enters a coast period. After coast, the kick stage fires up its engine to circularize its orbit ahead of payload deployment. The kick stage allows very precise orbital insertion and supports the ability to relight multiple times. This allows multiple payloads to be placed into slightly different orbits depending on a customers needs. For this mission, the kick stage will make one burn to circularize its orbit, with ignition planned at T+57 minutes, 43 seconds, and cutoff expected at T+ 59 minutes, 11 seconds. All payload deployments are set to occur shortly after engine shutdown. The manifest for #ThereAndBackAgain is packed! Were deploying sats that will monitor light pollution, demonstrate space junk removal tech, improve power in small sats, validate sustainable satellite tech, & enable maritime surveillance. Learn more: https://t.co/0DkN0kSTTp pic.twitter.com/s2Oby367u5 Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) April 20, 2022 There will be 34 payloads in total on this mission coming from six different companies and will bring the total number of satellites launched by Rocket Lab to 146. Four payloads come from Alba Orbital and consist of four pico-satellites. Pico-satellites are generally referred to as satellites that weigh less than 1kg (2.2lbs). Three of the satellites were built by the company My Radar, with two being named TRSI-2 and 3, joining the TRSI-1 satellite which was launched into orbit onboard the Running out of Fingers mission back in 2019 . The third payload is known as MyRadar-1. Another payload will be Alba Orbitals own satellite dubbed Unicorn-2 which will carry an optical night-time imaging payload designed to monitor light pollution across the globe. One payload comes from Astrix Astronautics and will deploy the companys Copia system. This system aims to improve the power restraints of small satellites. The next payload is the AuroraSat-1, from Aurora Propulsion Technologies. The satellite is a 1.5U CubeSat and will demonstrate space junk removal technologies for small satellites. AuroraSat-1 will also test its deployable Plasma Brakes which combine a micro-tether with charged particles in space, or ionospheric plasma, to generate significant amounts of drag to deorbit the spacecraft safely at the end of its life. Three payloads come from the company E-Space and consist of three demonstration satellites for the companys sustainable satellite system. At the end of their operational lives, the satellites will attempt to capture any small debris before actively de-orbiting themselves in an attempt to reduce the amount of debris in orbit. Another payload launching on this mission is the BRO-6 satellite. This will be the sixth satellite in the constellation run by the company UNSEENLABS and will improve the constellations ability to detect radio frequency signals. This gives the company the ability to detect vessels at sea, even when the vessels cooperative beacon is turned off. The final payloads launching on the There and Back Again mission will be two stacks of SpaceBEE CubeSats. SpaceBEEs are 0.25-1U CubeSats built and operated by the private company Swarm Technologies. With these satellites, the company currently operates a low bandwidth satellite internet constellation for use with IoT (Internet-of-Things) devices. Booster Recovery Back in 2019, Rocket Lab Founder and CEO Peter Beck announced plans to make the companys Electron rocket partially reusable. Unlike SpaceXs Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets which land propulsively either on one of the companys three autonomous drone ships, or if mission performance requirements allow, back on land at Landing Zone 1&2 in Cape Canaveral, or Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg AFB in California Rocket Lab intends to catch the first stage of Electron via helicopter while descending under parachute. This will not be the first booster recovery attempt made by the company; however, it will be the first time the company will try to catch the booster while it descends under parachute. During Electrons 16th mission named Return to Sender , the booster deployed its parachute, successfully splashed down in the ocean, and was able to be recovered. The mission demonstrated that an Electron booster could survive reentry and successfully control its descent while under parachute and no catch attempt was planned. Two additional booster recoveries were also conducted using the same method and allowed Rocket Lab to gain more data on how well Electron survives reentry and what improvements can be made to future vehicles. One such improvement is the addition of a new, very thin thermal protection system designed to help shield the stage from the heat of re-entry. The coating now gives the stage a shinier metallic look as opposed to Electrons more iconic all sleek black look. This first catch attempt also comes after many mid-air recovery tests were done using a test article that simulates electrons first stage. For this catch attempt, the company will utilize a new member of its fleet, a customized Sikorsky S-92 helicopter. About an hour prior to lift off, the helicopter will move into position in the recovery zone about 150 nautical miles off the coast of New Zealand. After re-entering the atmosphere, and about seven minutes after liftoff, the booster will deploy a drogue chute at around 13km (8.3 miles), followed by the main parachute at ~6km (3.7 miles). Just over eight minutes after liftoff, the main chute will slow the vehicle down to ~10 meters per second (~22 mph). If all goes to plan, about 18 minutes after liftoff the helicopter will fly just above the booster and snag its parachute with a hook. The hook collapses the parachute and secures the vehicle for transport back to land. Once over land, the helicopter will gently lower the vehicle onto the ground and release its hook from the parachute. After the stage is recovered, Rocket Lab engineers will then be able to inspect the booster and analyze its suitability for another flight. Being able to inspect flown hardware gives engineers a better opportunity to help improve future vehicles. It is unknown whether Rocket Lab plans to re-fly this booster if it ends up in good condition, or if it will be used as a pathfinder for future reusable vehicles. (Lead image: Electron vertical at LC-1A before launch. Credit: Rocket Lab) The post Rocket Lab Set For First Booster Catch Attempt During There And Back Again Mission appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com . ====================================================================== Link to news story: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2022/05/rocket-lab-booster-catch-attempt/ --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 (Linux/64) * Origin: tqwNet Science News (1337:1/100) .