КА для Astro Digital - Electron - Mahia, LC1 - 17.10.2019, 01:22 UTC

Автор tnt22, 01.10.2019 00:56:23

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tnt22

Цитировать Rocket Lab @RocketLab 15 мин. назад

After a successful lift-off for #AsTheCrowFlies, Electron's Kick Stage is now in a transfer orbit preparing to deploy @astrodigitalgeo's payload in the coming hours. Check out the views from today's launch.





tnt22

Цитировать10/17/2019 04:36 Stephen Clark

Rocket Lab's webcast has ended. Ignition of the Curie kick stage scheduled around 0230 GMT (10:30 p.m. EDT)

Separation of the mission's sole payload will occur a few minutes later. Rocket Lab says it will announce the deployment of the Palisade spacecraft via Twitter.

tnt22

Запись трансляции пуска
ЦитироватьRocket Lab 'As The Crow Flies' Launch

 Rocket Lab

Трансляция началась 55 минут назад
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI_Ng4SGyUYhttps://www.youtube.com/embed/gI_Ng4SGyUY?feature=oembed (27:56)

tnt22


tnt22

Обнаружен первый объект запуска0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 44634U 19069A   19290.10178028  .00000031  00000-0  00000+0 0  9997
2 44634  87.9105  43.5434 0623620 274.2443 159.8785 14.40072584    09
44634 / 2019-069A : 313 x 1203 km x 87.911°, 99.98 min, 2019-10-17 02:26:33

tnt22

#65
Есть отделение КА!

Цитировать Peter Beck‏ @Peter_J_Beck 4 мин. назад

Perfect final orbit and deployment. Flawless mission!

tnt22

Цитировать Rocket Lab‏ @RocketLab 3 мин. назад

The #AsTheCrowFlies spacecraft has been deployed. We have mission success! Congratulations to @astrodigitalgeo team. It has been a privilege to be your mission partner.

tnt22


tnt22

Цитировать Peter Beck‏ @Peter_J_Beck 3 мин. назад

Just completed perfect de-orbit burn of the kick stage making sure we don't leave junk in space for generations to come.
#tidykiwi

tnt22

Обнаружен второй объект запуска0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 44635U 19069B   19290.11199285  .00000013  00000-0  00000+0 0  9997
2 44635  87.8200  43.6719 0039998 247.2563 237.2555 13.17952229    06
44635 / 2019-069B : 1162 x 1223 km x 87.820°, 109.25 min, 2019-10-17 02:41:16

tnt22

Найден третий объект запуска0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 44636U 19069C   19290.11207356  .00000031  00000-0  00000+0 0  9997
2 44636  87.8987  43.5237 0627863 274.3833 213.0446 14.40311398    02
44636 / 2019-069C : 309 x 1205 km x 87.899°, 99.97 min, 2019-10-17 02:41:23

tnt22

https://www.rocketlabusa.com/news/updates/rocket-lab-successfully-launches-ninth-electron-mission-deploys-payload-to-highest-orbit-yet/
ЦитироватьRocket Lab successfully launches ninth Electron mission, deploys payload to highest orbit yet



The successful mission brings the total count of satellites deployed by Rocket Lab to 40 and continues the company's record of 100% mission success for customers

Auckland, New Zealand.  17 October 2019 – Rocket Lab, the global leader in dedicated small satellite launch, has successfully launched its ninth Electron mission, deploying a single spacecraft to orbit for satellite manufacturer Astro Digital.

The mission, named 'As The Crow Flies,' lifted off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand's Māhia Peninsula at 01:22 UTC, 17 October 2019 (14:22 NZDT). Approximately 71 minutes after lift-off, Electron's Kick Stage deployed the payload to a circular orbit of more than 1,000 km - more than twice the altitude of any Electron mission to date. The mission successfully demonstrated recent upgrades to the Kick Stage's 3D-printed Curie engine, including the move to a bi-propellant design for improved performance. Curie also serves as the propulsion system on Rocket Lab's Photon satellite bus, and the flight-proven engine upgrades support enduring missions in LEO, as well as higher orbits.  

This mission takes the total number of satellites deployed by Rocket Lab to 40 and continues the company's track record of 100% mission success for customers.  

The spacecraft on board was a Palisade technology demonstration satellite - a 16U CubeSat with on-board propulsion and next generation communications systems developed by Astro Digital, and software developed by Advanced Solutions Inc. including an advanced version of ASI's MAX Flight Software.

The mission earned its moniker, 'As The Crow Flies,' as a nod to Astro Digital's Corvus Spacecraft Platform which provides flexible and cost-effective solutions across a wide range of applications and mission profiles on bus variants ranging from 6U and 16U CubeSats to ESPA Class. Corvus is also a widely distributed genus of birds that includes crows.

'As The Crow Flies' was pulled forward in Rocket Lab's 2019 manifest after a customer originally slated for this window requested a later launch date.

"Congratulations to the Astro Digital team for readying the spacecraft and taking advantage of an earlier launch opportunity. Our teams worked closely to deliver a flawless mission in a demonstration of the truly responsive space launch that small satellites need," said Rocket Lab Founder and Chief Executive, Peter Beck. "No longer do small satellite operators have to accept the limitations of flying as a secondary payload, nor do they have to wait endlessly on the manifest of unproven launch vehicles. Frequent, responsive, and reliable launch is the new norm for small satellites thanks to Electron."

Rocket Lab's next mission is scheduled for lift-off from Launch Complex 1 from late November.


tnt22

https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/10/17/rocket-lab-delivers-on-dedicated-launch-for-astro-digital/
ЦитироватьRocket Lab delivers on dedicated launch for Astro Digital
October 17, 2019 | Stephen Clark


In this view fr om the Electron rocket's second stage, Rocket Lab's Curie kick stage with the Palisade satellite is seen backdropped by the Earth around 10 minutes after liftoff. Credit: Rocket Lab

A technology demonstration microsatellite for Astro Digital rode a Rocket Lab Electron launcher into orbit Wednesday (U.S. time) fr om New Zealand, setting the stage for the debut of new systems on the next Electron flight as engineers move closer to retrieving and reusing the rocket's first stage.

The 55-foot-tall (17-meter) Electron rocket fired nine Rutherford engines with nearly 50,000 pounds of thrust at 9:22 p.m. EDT Wednesday (0122 GMT Thursday) to climb off its launch pad on Mahia Peninsula, the home of Rocket Lab's privately-run spaceport on on New Zealand's North Island.

Liftoff occurred at 2:22 p.m. local time in New Zealand to begin Rocket Lab's ninth Electron mission, and the fifth this year.

Heading south from the launch base, the Electron shed its nine-engine first stage around two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff. Moments later, the second stage's single Rutherford engine ignited to continue the journey into space.

Powered by electric pumps, the Rutherford engine guided the Electron rocket into an on-target parking orbit around nine minutes into the mission, before the launcher deployed Rocket Lab's Curie kick stage to complete the job of placing Astro Digital's Palisade microsatellite into its final orbit.

A camera mounted to the tumbling Electron second stage beamed down dazzling live views of the Curie kick stage and the Palisade spacecraft.

Rocket Lab's live webcast of the mission ended after the launcher reached its preliminary orbit. The company later confirmed the Curie kick stage completed its orbit adjustment maneuver, then released the Palisade satellite around 71 minutes after liftoff.

"Perfect final orbit and deployment," tweeted Peter Beck, Rocket Lab's CEO. "Flawless mission!"

The launch vehicle injected the Palisade spacecraft into a nearly circular polar orbit with an average altitude of around 745 miles, or 1,200 kilometers, at an inclination of 87.8 degrees, according to U.S. military tracking data.

The Curie kick stage flown on Wednesday's mission included a performance enhancement. The kick stage's engine previously used a single "green" non-toxic fuel — a monopropellant system, in propulsion parlance — while the upgraded engine is fed by a green bi-propellant mixture with a fuel and an oxidizer.

After releasing Astro Digital's Palisade satellite, the Curie kick stage reignited to drop out of orbit, according to Rocket Lab.

"Just completed perfect de-orbit burn of the kick stage making sure we don't leave junk in space for generations to come," Beck tweeted.

The Electron rocket that launched Wednesday, known as "Flight 9," was originally assigned to ferry a different payload into orbit, Beck said in a recent interview. Rocket Lab did not identify the satellite that was replaced by Astro Digital's Palisade spacecraft.

"Congratulations to the Astro Digital team for readying the spacecraft and taking advantage of an earlier launch opportunity," Beck said in a post-launch press release. "Our teams worked closely to deliver a flawless mission in a demonstration of the truly responsive space launch that small satellites need."

Rocket Lab was the first in a new wave of startup launch companies to enter commercial operations with a small satellite launch vehicle. The Electron rocket, with a base price of $5.7 million, is sized to carry up to 330 pounds (150 kilograms) into a 310-mile-high (500-kilometer) sun-synchronous orbit, allowing small satellite operators to buy dedicated rides to space rather than purchasing excess capacity on a larger launcher.

"No longer do small satellite operators have to accept the limitations of flying as a secondary payload, nor do they have to wait endlessly on the manifest of unproven launch vehicles," Beck said. "Frequent, responsive, and reliable launch is the new norm for small satellites thanks to Electron."

Rocket Lab aims to debut an upgraded Electron first stage on the company's next mission, set for late November.

The first stage on the next Electron rocket, designated Flight 10, will feature several changes to help Rocket Lab prepare for an eventual attempt to recover the booster with a helicopter on a future flight. Rocket Lab announced in August plans to retrieve and reuse Electron first stages, primarily to achieve a planned cadence of one launch per week.

Rocket Lab determined production bottlenecks were a major factor inhibiting such a rapid launch rate. Reusing rockets could ease the burden on Rocket Lab's factories in New Zealand and California, the company says.

The company installed a data recorder on an Electron rocket launched in August to collect information on the environments the first stage sees when it comes back to Earth, before eventually breaking apart in the atmosphere.

Beck told Spaceflight Now in a recent interview that the data obtained during the August launch showed that designing the Electron first stage to survive re-entry will be difficult.

"We knew it's hard, but we certainly learned that it is hard," Beck said. "We did get some good initial data from the flight (in August), but really Flight 10 is wh ere it's all going to happen. That's wh ere we're pushing really deep with the stage. That stage has a full telemetry system, there's RCS (reaction control system thrusters) to guide it into the entry corridor. We expect to go quite deep (into the atmosphere) with that flight."

The next Electron launch will not carry a decelerator or a parachute. Those systems will be installed on later rockets to enable a recovery of the booster first from the ocean, then via helicopter, Beck said.

"It's purely to just punch it into the atmosphere, fully guided, as deep as we can and gather data," he said. "Flight 10 is about pushing it deep into the atmosphere and really understanding the hypersonic flow and the heating regime."

SpaceX uses cold gas thrusters to re-orient its Falcon 9 first stages, then reignites a subset of the Falcon 9's Merlin engines to slow down for propulsive landings, using thrust and grid fins to steer it back to a drone ship at sea or toward an onshore recovery site.

Rocket Lab is taking a different approach.

Because the Electron rocket is much smaller than the Falcon 9, there's not enough leftover propellant to attempt a propulsive landing.

"We don't intend to use grid fins," Beck said. "We have other types of measures. The most important thing on this (next) one is the active guidance with the RCS and making sure we maintain a really tight corridor with the base heat shield first, and just push it as deep as we can go."

The Palisade spacecraft launched Wednesday — about the size of a small suitcase — is designed for a technology demonstration mission, according to Astro Digital, a company based in Silicon Valley. It carries an on-board propulsion system, an Astro Digital-developed communications system, and software developed by Advanced Solutions Inc., a Colorado company.

"Our team built this satellite in five months, including the complex RF (communications) payload, something we are very proud of," said Chris Biddy, co-founder and CEO of Astro Digital.

The company did not provide details on the type of communications technology it will test on the Palisade satellite, or the services the payload could provide to customers.

Astro Digital has launched four small "Landmapper" CubeSats for a planned fleet of Earth observation satellites. The company has "evolved" its strategy to support a broader range of satellite missions, Biddy told Spaceflight Now.

"We were able to prove our core satellite platform technology with our first Landmapper satellites and have now expanded and evolved into supporting a diverse range of missions leveraging our experience," Biddy said. "We started as an Earth observation company. Now we are an end-to-end mission provider supporting broad LEO-based missions."

Rocket Lab named Wednesday's mission "As The Crow Flies" as a nod to Astro Digital's Corvus satellite platform, upon which the Palisade mission is built. Corvus is a genus of birds that includes crows.

tnt22

Объекты запуска внесены в каталог, не идентифицированы
 

tnt22

Цитировать Rocket Lab‏ @RocketLab 16 мин. назад

More stunning photos from yesterday's #AsTheCrowFlies mission. Our 9th launch marks 90 Rutherford engines launched to space now.   Electron's glamour shots are courtesy of our launch team members @samstoms, @VonBraunnabe and Andrew Burns.



tnt22

Обнаружен 4-й объект запуска0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 44639U 19069D   19291.61291444  .00417854  00000-0  96878-2 0  9993
2 44639  87.8914  43.1463 0616085 268.1460  85.0199 14.42760200    85
44639 / 2019-069D : 310 x 1189 km x 87.891°, 99.80 min, 2019-10-18 14:42:35

tnt22

НОРАД разобрался с объектами запуска