On May 15, at 13:08 Kiev time, the Rocket Lab Electron rocket will be launched from the New Zealand launch pad. The spent first stage is planned to be returned to Earth intact, as SpaceX has been doing for a long time, but in a different way: it will be lowered into the ocean by parachute, and then caught and loaded aboard. vessels ORCA.
2 minutes 33 seconds after the start at an altitude of about 80 km, the first and second Electron stages will separate.
The control system will reorient the first stage 180 ° and position it at the ideal reentry angle to withstand a peak temperature of 2,400 ° C and loads at eight times the speed of sound. At 7 minutes 20 seconds after the start, the maximum dynamic load is expected on the falling stage.
16 seconds after this (and the descent to a speed
Watch the video: “Watch with sound”. Separation of stages of the Electron in flight
The entire mission is designed for 55 minutes 33 seconds. The satellites will then be launched into a circular sun-synchronous orbit with an altitude of 420 km and an inclination of 50 °.
This is the 20th anniversary launch of a private US-New Zealand company founded by Peter Beck… Last fall, in the Return To Sender mission, the Electron stage was already returned in a similar way from space. This time, the engineers hope to carry out the procedure even more smoothly, given the information then received.
On the Mahia Peninsula, it will be late evening at the start time.
Under the nose cone, there are two 60-kilogram spacecraft for remote sensing of the Earth in the optical range from the Seattle-based BlackSky company. It plans to assemble a fleet of at least 60 satellites to provide high-resolution imagery (up to 1m per pixel) on request on demand in a short time, almost anywhere on the planet.
At the beginning of 2022, according to the company’s plan, there will be 16 operating devices. The planned term of their “life” is three years.
This mission is called Running Out Of Toes. One of the past at Rocket Lab was called Running Out Of Fingers (meaning “there are not enough fingers on our hands to count our launches”).
Read also: From Texas to Hawaii. Musk showed Starship orbital test flight plan
Read more about Electron, which is assembled in just a couple of weeks, and the company’s space technologies, here.
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