Start Electrona 19.08. o 12:12 z wyrzutni LC1 w Onenui Station wystrzelona została RN Electron/Curie, która wyniosła w T+51' 48"
na orbitę o parametrach: hp=540 km, ha=540 km, i=45º satelity BlackSky Global 4, BRO 1, AFSPC 1 i AFSPC 2.
http://lk.astronautilus.pl/n190816.htm#03Rakietowy poniedziałek (19.08.2019) BY KRZYSZTOF KANAWKA ON 20 SIERPNIA 2019
Drugi start z 19 sierpnia 2019 nastąpił o godzinie 14:12 CEST. Wówczas z nowozelandzkiego portu Onenui wystartowała rakieta Electron. Na pokładzie tej rakiety znalazły się cztery małe satelity.
Był to już 53 i 54 start rakiety orbitalnej w 2019 roku. Do końca sierpnia planowane są jeszcze przynajmniej cztery starty rakiet nośnych.
https://kosmonauta.net/2019/08/rakietowy-poniedzialek-19-08-2019/Udane starty rakiet z Chin i Nowej Zelandii19 sie 2019
19 sierpnia odbyły się dwa starty rakiet orbitalnych w odstępie zaledwie 9 minut. Z Nowej Zelandii 8. raz poleciała rakieta Electron z czterema satelitami od firm UnseenLabs i Spaceflight, a z chińskiego kosmodromu Xichang rakieta Długi Marsz 3B wyniosła cywilnego satelitę telekomunikacyjnego Chinasat 18. (...)
Electron po raz ósmyZ kompleksu rakietowego na Półwyspie Mahia w Nowej Zelandii wystartowała w poniedziałek o 14:12 czasu polskiego rakieta Electron firmy Rocket Lab. W swojej 8. misji nazwanej “Look Ma, No Hands” rakieta z powodzeniem wyniosła na orbitę satelity dla firm UnseenLabs i pośrednika Spaceflight.
Satelita firmy UnseenLabs to
BRO-1 (Breizh Reconnaissance Orbiter - 1). Jest to pierwszy satelita przyszłej flotylli statków przeznaczonych do obserwacji ruchu morskiego.
Pozostałe satelity były obsługiwane przez amerykańskiego pośrednika w wysyłaniu małych satelitów - firmę Spaceflight. W tym locie na pokładzie rakiety znalazły się:
BlackSky Global 4 - 4. statek firmy BlackSky, która buduje sieć satelitów obserwacji optycznej o rozdzielczości do 90 cm/px na niskiej orbicie. Firma swoje poprzednie 3 satelity wysłała na trzech różnych rakietach w 2018 i 2019 roku. Każdy z satelitów obecnej wersji ma działać przez 3 lat i umożliwiać zbieranie 1000 fotografii na dzień. Docelowo firma chce utrzymywać operacyjną sieć 60 satelitów.
Pearl White 1,2 - para nanosatelitów standardu CubeSat 6U zbudowana przez firmę Tiger Innovations dla Dowództwa Kosmicznego Sił Powietrznych USA. Statki mają przez rok testować nowe technologie napędu, zasilania, komunikacji i deorbitacji statków kosmicznych.
Start przebiegł pomyślnie, a proces wypuszczania satelitów rozpoczął się w 54. minucie misji. Był to pierwszy lot rakiety Electron od ogłoszenia właściciela firmy Petera Becka o planach odzyskiwania dolnego stopnia rakiety za pomocą spadochronów i helikoptera.
Już w poprzednich dwóch lotach firma zbierała dane mające pomóc opracować proces odzysku rakiety. W tym locie po raz pierwszy umieszczono w rakiecie zaawansowany system zbierania danych z lotu Brutus. System ten to taka czarna skrzynka, która miała przetrwać powrót dolnego stopnia i twarde wodowanie. Zespół firmy odzyska urządzenie ze szczątków rakiety.
Już podczas 10. lotu pod koniec tego roku rakieta Electron będzie wyposażona w pierwszy sprzęt przeznaczony do procesu odzyskiwania rakiety.
PodsumowaniePo opisanych powyżej misjach licznik udanych startów orbitalnych w tym roku wynosi już 54. (...)
https://www.urania.edu.pl/wiadomosci/udane-starty-rakiet-z-chin-i-nowej-zelandiiRocket Lab launch fulfills initial block of BlackSky Earth-imaging satellitesAugust 19, 2019 Stephen Clark
Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket streaks into the sky over Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand in this long exposure image. Credit: Rocket Lab(...) Three of the satellites set for launch from Friday are riding to space through an agreement brokered by Spaceflight, a Seattle-based company that aggregates small satellites on rideshare missions.
The fourth spacecraft in BlackSky’s fleet of commercial Earth-observing microsatellites also launched on the Electron rocket, joining two satellites launched into polar sun-synchronous orbit last year, and a third delivered to a similar 45-degree inclination orbit on the most recent Rocket Lab mission June 29. (...)
With the
BlackSky Global 4 satellite now in orbit, BlackSky will next begin deployment of a new set of 20 privately-funded optical surveillance satellites built in Washington by LeoStella, a joint venture between BlackSky’s parent company Spaceflight Industries and Thales Alenia Space, a European satellite manufacturer.
BlackSky holds a contract with the National Reconnaissance Office, which owns the U.S. government’s spy satellites, to allow government analysts to evaluate the utility of commercial imagery in intelligence-gathering and overhead surveillance.
The next 20 satellites will be roughly the same size as the first four, but they come with some upgrades, Merski said.
“The next four are going to be launched, planned for the end of the year, and those four are the first four from our production contract,” he said. “Those four are going to be the first that are going to be developed by LeoStella, and are from our high-rate production line that they’ve kicked off.”
The next block of BlackSky satellites will produce the same quality 1-meter resolution images. (...)
BlackSky’s short-term plan is to build, launch and maintain a constellation of at least 16 satellites. If there’s enough customer interest, the company could expand that fleet to 60 or more spacecraft, which would give users an updated view of any populated land mass on Earth every 15 minutes or so. (...)
Two experimental satellites for Air Force Space Command also flew into space on Monday’s Electron rocket launch, which Rocket Lab nicknamed “Look Ma, No Hands.”
The two 6U CubeSats are part of Air Force Space Command’s
“Pearl White” technology demonstration program. The two CubeSats were built and will be operated by Tiger Innovations, a company based in Washington, D.C.’s Virginia suburbs.
“The demonstration will test new technologies including propulsion, power, communications, and drag capabilities for potential applications on future spacecraft,” the Air Force said in a statement. The mission is set to last one year.
A French startup named UnseenLabs also launched its first satellite on the Rocket Lab Electron booster. The briefcase-sized six-unit CubeSat, named
Bro-1, was built by the Danish smallest manufacturer GomSpace.
The Bro-1 mission is the first spacecraft in a planned constellation of CubeSats for maritime surveillance. UnseenLabs says its fleet of nanosatellites will be able to locate and identify ships around the world, providing tracking services for maritime operators and helping security forces watch for pirates and smugglers.
“Total success!” the company tweeted after Monday’s launch. “Bro-1 is fully alive and already talking with us! Ready to deliver valuable data to our customers. Another big step for UnSeenLabs, who becomes the first French private CubeSat operator in space!”
Monday’s mission was the eighth flight of Rocket Lab’s Electron vehicle, and the fourth this year. Rocket Lab plans another launch as soon as next month, but officials have not identified what satellites will be aboard.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/08/19/rocket-lab-launch-fulfills-initial-block-of-blacksky-earth-imaging-satellites/Rocket Lab Electron launches four smallsatsby Jeff Foust — August 19, 2019, Updated 9:15 a.m. Eastern after payload deployment.
A Rocket Lab Electron rocket lifts off Aug. 19 carrying four smallsats. Credit: Rocket Lab webcastWASHINGTON — Rocket Lab launched four small satellites Aug. 19 on a mission that also brings the company one step closer to reusing the first stage of its Electron rockets.
The Electron rocket lifted off from the company’s launch site on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula at 8:12 a.m. Eastern, three days after high winds scrubbed a previous launch attempt. The four satellites carried on the rocket’s Curie kick stage deployed successfully about 53 minutes after liftoff into a circular orbit 540 kilometers high at an inclination of 45 degrees.
Three of the four satellites on the mission, dubbed “Look Ma, No Hands,” were provided by Spaceflight, the Seattle-based rideshare aggregator. The largest is Global-4, the fourth in a series of high-resolution imaging satellites for BlackSky. This follows Global-3, which launched on the previous Electron mission, a dedicated rideshare mission for Spaceflight, June 29.
The other two satellites are six-unit cubesats for U.S. Air Force Space Command. The Pearl White cubesats, build by Tiger Innovations Inc., will test various technologies for potential use on future spacecraft.
The fourth satellite, whose launch was arranged separately, is a six-unit cubesat for French company UnseenLabs. The satellite, built by Danish company GomSpace, is the first in a constellation that will provide maritime surveillance services that the company says is not dependent on tracking Automatic Identification System signals.
The launch is the fourth this year for the Electron and the eighth overall for the small launch vehicle. The company is seeking to achieve a monthly launch cadence by the end of this year, but says that demand for launches is growing even faster.
That demand led the company to pursue plans, announced Aug. 6,
to attempt to recover and reuse the Electron’s first stage. “At the moment we just can’t build enough rockets,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said in an interview prior to the announcement.
As part of that effort, this launch carried a recorder to collect data during the first stage’s reentry. “It basically rides the stage in almost like a cowboy all the way down,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if the stage breaks up or not. It’s designed to survive the torturous environment.”
Beck said collecting that data will be a “critical milestone” towards recovering the first stage, which involves surviving what he described as the “wall” of sudden deceleration without the use of propulsion to help slow it down. The data will inform a block upgrade of the Electron starting with the rocket’s tenth flight that will include modifications to allow the first stage to survive reentry.
Beck said that, in a best-case scenario, the company could recover a first stage before the end of the year, initially allowing it to splash down in the ocean. Eventually, Rocket Lab plans to recover the first stage in midair using a helicopter equipped with a “skyhook” attachment.
https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-electron-launches-four-smallsats/BlackSky Global 4
https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/blacksky-global.htmBRO 1
https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/bro-1.htmPearl White 1
https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/pearl-white-1.htmPearl White 2