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Rocket Lab’s experimental rocket arrives at New Zealand launch pad for debut flight

After three years of developing a brand new rocket, aerospace startup Rocket Lab has finally transported a finished vehicle to the New Zealand launch pad where it will take its first flight. The rocket, called the Electron, has been tested on the ground over the last year but has never been flown to space before. Over the next couple of months, Rocket Lab will conduct a series of test launches of the vehicle to verify that it’s ready to carry payloads into orbit for commercial customers.

Compared to other major commercial rockets like the Falcon 9 or the Atlas V, the Electron is pretty small — only 55 feet tall and and around 4 feet in diameter. That’s because the vehicle is specifically designed to launch small satellites. The vehicle can carry payloads ranging from 330 to 500 pounds into an orbit more than 300 miles up. That’s a relatively light lift contrasted with the Falcon 9, which can carry more than 50,000 pounds into lower Earth orbit.

Space race between India, China, Japan heats up

(CNN) — Forget the US versus Russia. The real space race is taking place in Asia.

India’s space agency will attempt to launch 104 satellites from a single rocket Wednesday — a record feat that, if successful, will cement the country’s space smarts after its successful Mars orbiter mission.

The launch would almost triple the current record of 37 satellites Russia sent into orbit in 2014.

Gov’t Sued For Taking US Company’s Business Plan And Giving It To Foreigners

Hmmmm.


A private space company is suing the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for allegedly taking an idea and giving it to a foreign-owned competitor.

Orbital ATK accused DARPA, which develops military technology, of giving its business plan to repair satellites to Space Systems Loral (SSL), a company-based in California but registered as foreign-owned. Orbital ATK says handing business plans to SSL violates U.S. policy.

DARPA entered into a commercial partnership with Space Systems Loral (SSL) to take advantage of its Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) program to capture, re-position, and repair satellites in orbit. DARPA plans to buy future RSGS services from SSL, despite it being a Bermuda-based company.

NASA’s New Shape-Shifting Radiator Inspired by Origami

Japan’s ancient art of paper folding has inspired the design of a potentially trailblazing “smart” radiator that a NASA technologist is now developing to remove or retain heat on small satellites.

Vivek Dwivedi collaborated with BYU to develop the radiator

Technologist Vivek Dwivedi, who is standing in front of a sputtering reactor used to deposit vanadium-oxide onto sample substrates for testing, is collaborating with Brigham Young University researchers to develop a radiator ideal for small spacecraft.

Origami-inspired radiator from NASA could change shape to warm or cool tiny satellites

The devices we’re sending into space are getting smaller and lighter, which means there’s less room for bulky and static components. Flexibility and compactness are coming into vogue, and this prototype satellite radiator is inspired by that most compact and flexible of arts: origami.

An ordinary radiator would, of course, help dissipate heat generated by the sun or on-board electronics. But its shape and size, and therefore to a certain extent its capabilities, are set when it is manufactured.

Goddard Space Flight Center and Brigham Young University researchers are working on a radiator that can fold up or expand as needed to accelerate or slow the rate of heat dissipation as its operators see fit.

Space Farming: Satellite’s Greenhouses to Simulate Moon, Mars Gravity

A satellite that’s scheduled to launch later this year will conduct plant-growth experiments in both lunar and Martian gravity, as a way to help prepare for future human settlement of these worlds.

The Eu: CROPIS spacecraft will rotate around its own axis in low-Earth orbit, at an altitude of over 370 miles (600 kilometers). The satellite will initially produce the gravitational force of the moon on its inside for six months, and will then replicate Martian gravity for another six months.

During this time, tomato seeds will germinate and grow into small space tomatoes; 16 onboard cameras will document the plants’ progress. [Plants in Space: Photos by Gardening Astronauts].

This Is How India’s Space Agency Plans to Launch a Record 104 Satellites in One Go

OMG! Guess Guinness Records Book will be on hand at the launch.


India’s space agency will next month attempt to launch 104 satellites from a single rocket, a mission that could land it in the record books.

The Indian Space Research Organization plans to use its workhorse, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, to carry three satellites from India, and 101 smaller nano satellites from five countries—the U.S., Netherlands, Israel, Kazakhstan and Switzerland into orbit.

Republican Congressmen Order DARPA to Halt Construction of Space Robots

Republican members of Congress are now ordering DARPA to end their work on Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites. Why are they ordering them to stop? Because, according to National Space Policy guidelines, DARPA might be conducting operations that are potentially discouraging similar research in the private sector. Hmmmm :-(.


Republican congressmen orders DARPA to stop their work for in-space satellite services; DARPA refuses. — B.J. Murphy for Serious Wonder.

Lawmakers Call For Halt To DARPA Program: Robots Repairing Satellites

WASHINGTON: Three influential House lawmakers have asked DARPA in a Jan. 25 letter to review a robotic space repair program to see if it violates the National Space Policy by competing with private-sector efforts and to put the program on hold until the review is complete. The National Space Policy requires “that the government not build or buy systems that “preclude, discourage or compete” with commercial systems. Orbital ATK is building a system it believes competes directly with the DARPA initiative, known as Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites.

It’s an intriguing program. DARPA’s goal is to develop robotic systems that can fix damaged satellites 22,000 miles up. In the words of the program web page, it would be designed to “make house calls in space.”

But Rep. Jim Bridenstine, one of the most active lawmakers on space issues today (and possibly the next head of NASA); Rep. Barbara Comstock, chair of the House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee on research and technology; and Rep. Rob Bishop, chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, signed a letter today asking Acting DARPA Director Steven Walker to review RSGS to ensure it complies with the National Space Policy’s requirement that the government not build or buy systems that “preclude, discourage or compete” with commercial systems.