30 satelitów w jednym locie 20.11. o 02:20:01 z Onenui Station wystrzelona została RN Electron/Curie, która wyniosła w T+51' 08" na orbitę
o parametrach: hp=510 km, ha=515 km, i=97,4° 30 satelitów: DRAGRACER A (Alchemy), DRAGRACER B
(Augury), które będą połączone taśmą długości 70 m, BRO-2, BRO-3, APSS-1 i 24 sztuki SpaceBEE (konstelacja
Swarm) oraz Gnome Chompski, połączony ze stopniem Curie model postaci z gry komputerowej. Pierwsza próba
kontrolowanego opadania na spadochronie i osadzenia w T+12' 48" pierwszego stopnia na powierzchni oceanu,
skąd został wyłowiony, była pomyślna.
http://lk.astronautilus.pl/n201116.htm#03 Here are some statistics on today's mission:16th orbital launch attempt by Rocket Lab
1st attempt at booster recovery by Rocket Lab
6th Rocket Lab mission of 2020
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/11/19/rocket-lab-return-to-sender-mission-status-center/Rocket Lab recovers booster after launch with 30 small satellitesNovember 20, 2020 Stephen Clark
The Electron first stage is seen in the Pacific Ocean in this image shared by Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck on Twitter. Credit: Rocket Lab via Peter Beck(...) Beck said the company is taking an incremental approach to proving out its ability to recover and reuse Electron rocket boosters. Engineers want to see how well the booster survives re-entry, and it’s likely Rocket Lab will try several water splashdowns before attempting a mid-air recovery for the first time.
“If we’ve got a smoldering stump, then there’s really not much point in catching a smoldering stump with a helicopter,” Beck said earlier this month. (...)
“We’ve seen the cost of dedicated small launch come from anywhere from $50 million to $30 million for a Pegasus or a Minotaur (rocket) down to $7 million for a Rocket Lab vehicle,” Beck said.
If Rocket Lab is successful with reusing its boosters, “I think we’ll see a dramatic change in pricing again,” Beck said. (...)
Two of the spacecraft on the Electron launch were built by Millennium Space Systems, a subsidiary of Boeing, for a mission named DragRacer to test a drag-inducing device that could help small satellites in low Earth orbit naturally decay, or re-enter the atmosphere.
One satellite — named Alchemy — will extend a 230-foot-long (70-meter) electrically conductive tether, a device designed to increase the surface area of the spacecraft, allowing it to succumb to aerodynamic drag, re-enter the atmosphere, and burn up.
Both DragRacer spacecraft are identical, except that one carries the tether and the other — named Augury — does not.
According to preflight predictions, the satellite with the tether could re-enter the atmosphere within 45 days. The spacecraft without the tether — the control for the experiment — is expected to remain in orbit for around seven years, according to mission team members.
The device affixed to DragRacer’s Alchemy satellite is called a Terminator Tape. Developed by Tethers Unlimited, the tape measures just a few inches wide, but it can spool out to lengths of hundreds of feet.
The DragRacer experiment is a purely commercial experiment to quantify the effectiveness of the Terminator Tape technology, which Millennium and Tethers Unlimited say is a more reliable, lower cost, and less complex alternative to other deorbit methods, such as drag sails or propulsive thrusters.
“This scientific method experiment will demonstrate Millennium’s ability to field and fly a low-cost and straightforward orbital debris mitigation solution that doesn’t require added mass, volume, cost and complexity of propulsion system to deorbit a satellite in low Earth orbit,” said Stan Dubyn, founder and CEO of Millennium Space Systems, in a press release.
The two DragRacer satellites have a combined weight of around 55 pounds, or 25 kilograms, according to TriSept Corp., a partner on the DragRacer mission overseeing the integration of the satellites on the Rocket Lab launcher.
Ground-based radars will track the changing orbits of both DragRacer spacecraft to measure how they decay differently.
“The space community understands tether systems can expedite re-entry, but this is our first opportunity to truly quantify performance directly and more effectively calibrate models developed over the last 50 years,” said Robert Hoyt, founder and CEO of Tethers Unlimited. “Predictions suggest the tethered spacecraft will deorbit in approximately 45 days, while the untethered spacecraft remains in orbit for approximately 7 to 9 years.”
Tethers Unlimited’s Terminator Tape technology has flown before. The company says the tether module — which attaches on the exterior of a host spacecraft — weighs about 2 pounds and is about the size of a notebook, and is suitable for a range of satellite sizes.
The Prox-1 microsatellite developed by students at Georgia Tech deployed 230-foot-long Terminator Tape last year. Tethers Unlimited said tracking of the spacecraft showed its orbit decaying 24 times faster after extending the tether.
Flying two identical satellites on the DragRacer mission will allow engineers to better characterize the performance of the tether technology.
“The mission is completely about the demonstration,” said Jason Armstrong, director of TriSept’s launch and integration services, in an interview last year with Spaceflight Now. “So immediately upon separation from the launch vehicle, the two halves of the spacecraft will come apart from each other, and then we can deploy the tether on one half of the spacecraft and get immediate results.”
Armstrong said the benefit of the Terminator Tape over other deorbit solutions is its smaller volume and mass.
“It’s much less complex as far as the capabilities you need to have for actuating and deploying the system,” Armstrong said. “On-board, all we need to have is a small timer with a little battery mechanism. That’s very attractive (to satellite operators) because you’re not introducing risk or any high complexity systems that have to talk to your flight computer.” (...)
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/11/20/rocket-lab-recovers-booster-after-launch-with-30-small-satellites/https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2020/11/rocket-lab-attempt-first-stage-recovery/AA
https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=3856.msg152916#msg152916Dragracer A (Alchemy)
https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/dragracer.htmDragracer B (Augury)
BRO 2
https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/bro-1.htmBRO 3
SpaceBEE 22
https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/spacebee-10.htmSpaceBEE 23
SpaceBEE 24
SpaceBEE 25
SpaceBEE 26
SpaceBEE 27
SpaceBEE 28
SpaceBEE 29
SpaceBEE 30
SpaceBEE 31
SpaceBEE 32
SpaceBEE 33
SpaceBEE 34
SpaceBEE 35
SpaceBEE 36
SpaceBEE 37
SpaceBEE 38
SpaceBEE 39
SpaceBEE 40
SpaceBEE 41
SpaceBEE 42
SpaceBEE 43
SpaceBEE 44
SpaceBEE 45
APSS 1 (QuakeTEC, Te Waka Āmiorangi o Aotearoa)
https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/quaketec.htmGnome Chompski
https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/gnome-chompski.htm