Rocket Lab considering further targets for in-space Photon upper stage
Capitalism in space: As noted during a speech yesterday by CEO Peter Beck, Rocket Lab is considering further interplanetary targets for its still functioning Photon upper stage, that helped launch NASA’s CAPSTONE mission toward the Moon.
Rocket Lab is continuing to operate Lunar Photon more than a month after it deployed CAPSTONE. The spacecraft is currently about 1.3 million kilometers from Earth, he said, and will swing back to Earth later in the month.
The spacecraft still has 10-15% of its propellant remaining. “As it scoots past Earth,” Beck said, “we’ll have a crack at doing something cool with it and see how far into the solar system we can get with it.”
Rocket Lab hopes to use a future Photon stage to send a probe to Venus, and is using the Photon in space now for engineering tests. It is also selling this technology as a viable cheaper alternative to the typically expensive interplanetary probes.
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Capitalism in space: As noted during a speech yesterday by CEO Peter Beck, Rocket Lab is considering further interplanetary targets for its still functioning Photon upper stage, that helped launch NASA’s CAPSTONE mission toward the Moon.
Rocket Lab is continuing to operate Lunar Photon more than a month after it deployed CAPSTONE. The spacecraft is currently about 1.3 million kilometers from Earth, he said, and will swing back to Earth later in the month.
The spacecraft still has 10-15% of its propellant remaining. “As it scoots past Earth,” Beck said, “we’ll have a crack at doing something cool with it and see how far into the solar system we can get with it.”
Rocket Lab hopes to use a future Photon stage to send a probe to Venus, and is using the Photon in space now for engineering tests. It is also selling this technology as a viable cheaper alternative to the typically expensive interplanetary probes.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
” . . . we’ll have a crack at doing something cool with it and see how far into the solar system we can get with it.”
A very American sentiment.
Any cameras on it? That kilometer wide Earth Trojan might be a good target if they do some loops and do a slingshot/breakaway. Pass the word.
No cameras. They removed them all the limit weight for the capstone mission.
Sidenote:
Rocketlab is prepping an Electron rocket to go to Virginia for launch from Wallops around the end of the year.
https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/1556722181047865344
Also, this was published yesterday:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/unlike-other-former-spacs-rocket-lab-is-already-science-not-fiction-11660045735
Paywall for WSJ, however.
“Rocket Lab considering further targets for in-space Photon upper stage” Peking sounds pretty good
I would love to see them do a fly by of an asteroid.. Or even Ceres.
After SpaceX, Rocket Lab is the space company that seems to be making things happen.
The key to their future is likely to be Neutron. It’s a bit early to start seeing hardware but I wonder how development is going.
Will be interesting to see if Rocket Lab’s philosophy of fancier, lighter carbon fiber rocket with simpler engines works out.
Mitch S.wrote: “Will be interesting to see if Rocket Lab’s philosophy of fancier, lighter carbon fiber rocket with simpler engines works out.”
SpaceX originally thought that Starship would be made of composites, but because the test units would need rapid construction and modification, they went to steel. Once the Starship and Super Heavy designs become more stable, it will be interesting to see whether they revisit composites.
Composites have advantages, but they also come with some disadvantages.