Rocket Lab USA Inc. launched a satellite for Capella Space Corp. into low Earth orbit this month.
The Long Beach aerospace company on Aug. 12 launched the “A Sky Full of SARs” mission from its private orbital launch site on New Zealand’s Mahia peninsula.
It was the 52nd launch of an Electron rocket for the company.
It was also the fifth mission for Capella, in San Francisco, that’s taken place since Capella’s first mission on Electron in August 2020. That mission sent up a satellite that was part of a constellation or a group of satellites.
Rocket Lab founder and Chief Executive Peter Beck said that Electron “is a reliable constellation builder, providing precise and dedicated deployment to unique orbits that allows satellite operators like Capella to iteratively build out their constellation when and where they need to.
“I’m proud of the team for delivering this latest successful mission for Capella and for successfully delivering nine missions so far this year as Electron’s launch cadence continues to ramp up,” Beck continued in his statement. “With many more missions scheduled in the coming weeks and months, we look forward to delivering our busiest launch year yet in 2024.”
The “A Sky Full of SARs” mission deployed the next of Capella’s third-generation SAR (synthetic aperture radar) Acadia satellites to a mid-inclination low Earth orbit of 369 miles. In addition to the launch service, Rocket Lab provided a custom extended fairing on Electron to encompass the payload before Capella’s satellite was deployed to space from a Rocket Lab-produced separation system, according to the company.
Also this month, Rocket Lab delivered two spacecraft that are headed to Mars to Cape Canaveral, Florida, in preparation for launch, scheduled for October.
These twin spacecraft for the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) heliophysics mission were designed, built, integrated, and tested by Rocket Lab in Long Beach for the University of California, Berkeley’s Space Science Laboratory and NASA.
Following this milestone, the Rocket Lab team conducted final closeout activities, including the installation of spacecraft solar arrays and multi-layer insulation blankets, before they were packaged and shipped to Florida for launch, the company said.
“Our Space Systems team has built a beautiful and highly capable pair of spacecraft to help NASA and the University of California, Berkeley further humanity’s understanding of Mars,” Beck said in a statement. “We couldn’t be prouder to be an ESCAPADE mission partner enabling science and exploration missions beyond our planet.”
Rob Lillis, associate director for planetary science at the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory, said that the successful delivery of the spacecraft to Kennedy Space Center marks the culmination of over three years of teamwork from individuals across the project and especially its partners at Rocket Lab.
“Interplanetary spacecraft must be much more resilient than earth satellites, and developing not one, but two of these probes almost from scratch was no small feat,” Lillis said in a statement. “Time and again, Rocket Lab’s agility and tireless efforts have impressed me, exemplified by their frequent ‘hero mode’ (a saying we have on the project) to troubleshoot and keep the project on course. We couldn’t ask for better partners in this endeavor. Now, we’re thrilled to embark on this first step of our journey to Mars.”
Once launched, the ESCAPADE mission will measure plasma and magnetic fields around the Red Planet. These observations will help scientists unravel the processes that strip atoms from Mars’ magnetosphere and upper atmosphere, offering critical insights into Martian climate evolution, Rocket Lab said in its release.
