Rocket Lab Launched NASA Solar Sail System And Korean Satellite

Space.com

A Rocket Lab Electron rocket launched the NEONSAT-1 Earth-observation satellite and NASA's Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) from New Zealand.  Credit: Rocket Lab

Transcript

00:00 [Aircraft engine noise]

00:07 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, liftoff.

00:20 [Aircraft engine noise]

00:30 [Aircraft engine noise]

00:33 Beginning pitch lower.

00:35 [Aircraft engine noise]

00:47 Stage 1 propulsion is nominal.

00:49 The beginning of the swarm has begun its ride to space

00:52 with that clean Electron liftoff from LC-1.

00:55 Electron's trajectory will take it up and over the South Pacific Ocean

00:59 as it heads away from the launch pad.

01:02 Our first mission milestone will be Max Q,

01:04 otherwise known as maximum aerodynamic pressure,

01:07 which is the moment where Electron experiences the most amount of stress

01:10 as it climbs through the atmosphere.

01:13 We're coming up on that moment now

01:14 and expecting to hear the call for Max Q shortly.

01:21 A3 battery discharge nominal.

01:27 Cleared Max Q.

01:29 [Applause]

01:32 That is Electron clear through Max Q

01:35 with the rocket now at 15 kilometres in altitude

01:38 and moving at over 2,200 kilometres an hour.

01:43 Next up, Electron will perform three actions that are only seconds apart.

01:47 The first is called MECO or main engine cutoff

01:50 and this is when the nine engines that you can see glowing

01:53 at the bottom of the rocket there shut off in preparation for the second step

01:57 and that move is called out as stage separation,

02:00 when the first stage of Electron separates from its second and falls back to Earth.

02:04 Now the third call out after separation should be second stage engine ignition

02:09 when the single vacuum optimised Rutherford engine fires up

02:13 to maintain the mission's course to low Earth orbit.

02:16 Now those three events are approaching fast

02:18 so we'll bring up the audio channels from mission control now.

02:28 15 seconds to staging.

02:31 Entered burnout detect mode.

02:44 MECO confirmed.

02:47 [Applause]

03:00 There we go, that was MECO, stage separation and engine start on the second stage.

03:06 We have had a nice clean camera feed of those things happening

03:09 with the camera view now held on the second stage engine as it powers the mission on.

03:14 Beginning of the swarm is now over 100 kilometres above Earth,

03:18 past the Karman line and moving at more than 8,000 kilometres an hour.

03:23 The next mission milestone is fairing jettison or separation of the nose cone

03:27 and that's what protects Neonsat 1.

03:31 As you just saw, fairing jettison is now complete.

03:34 We dropped those two fairing hubs early into the mission

03:37 because they're not needed for satellite protection anymore

03:40 now that we're through Earth's atmosphere.

03:42 That dead weight is gone and the mission is now a step closer

03:45 to Earth's payload deployment at 520 kilometres.

03:58 We have a couple of minutes to go until our next mission milestone

04:01 and that will be the battery hot swap on the second stage,

04:04 currently expected to take place at the T+6 minutes, 20 second mark.

04:09 Right now though, Electron's second stage is continuing along nicely

04:13 with a target apogee of 520 kilometres for our first payload deployment for KIST.

04:19 This KIST satellite is the first of up to 11 satellites planned by them,

04:23 which will help to increase the programme's observation rates

04:26 of once every two to three days to three to four times daily.

04:49 It's T+4 minutes into the mission.

04:52 Electron is still progressing smoothly through flight and all remains healthy

04:56 with KIST and NASA's satellites.

04:58 For NASA's payload, packed into this small satellite are composite booms

05:02 that will unfurl once the payload is deployed,

05:05 much like how a butterfly's wings emerge from its cocoon.

05:08 This satellite will test how the pressure of sunlight pushing against its sails

05:12 moves the satellite around.

05:14 The closer to the sun, the better to test its solar sail technology,

05:17 hence the reason for this mission requirement of a much higher orbit

05:21 than the primary payload on Electron today.

05:50 T+5 minutes 32 seconds and our launch operator's next call out

05:54 will be for the battery hot swap.

05:56 Our rocket engine's pump is battery powered and since it's been flying

06:00 for a while now, its power source is starting to run low.

06:04 So to keep the engine and the mission going, Electron's engine power system

06:08 swaps to a new battery pack for fresh and continuous energy supply

06:12 to the electric pumps.

06:14 The old set of batteries will be discarded,

06:16 which you can sometimes see on the screen as it happens,

06:19 so let's listen in to Mission Control for that call.

06:41 Hot swap successful.

06:46 And as confirmed by Mission Control, battery hot swap has been completed

06:50 for the second stage Rutherford engine.

06:52 Propulsion remains nominal and the mission is continuing on its journey

06:56 to that first payload deployment with KIST and NeonSat-1.

07:00 Now of course, once NeonSat-1 is deployed, that is only the first of two

07:04 satellites to be released on this mission.

07:07 Electron is also carrying NASA's Advanced Composite Solar Sail System satellite

07:11 that will be deployed at twice the altitude we're heading to now.

07:15 That's 520 kilometers above Earth to 1,000.

07:19 To do that, we'll first need to repeat the stage separation process

07:22 we completed earlier in the mission, this time separating Electron's third stage,

07:26 or kick stage, from the second stage that's currently firing hot on your screen.

07:31 That second engine cutoff milestone, which you'll hear called out at SECO,

07:35 is expected at around nine minutes into the mission.

08:04 T-plus seven minutes, 47 seconds into the flight,

08:07 and the mission is continuing nominally.

08:10 If you take a glance over at the right of your screen,

08:12 you'll see some telemetry from Electron's second stage,

08:15 showing us that we have about 16 percent of propellant remaining.

08:20 We're currently cruising along at a speed of over 21,000 kilometers an hour

08:24 and approaching an altitude of almost 209.

08:48 We're coming up now to engine cutoff on the second stage.

08:51 The last action this stage will perform for the mission.

08:54 Much like with the first stage, Electron will power down the Rutherford engine

08:58 on the second stage to allow the kick stage to separate cleanly.

09:02 We time the engine shutdown for right as we reach that target perigee of 250 kilometers.

09:08 Let's listen out for the engine shutdown and stage separation now.

09:26 SECO confirmed.

09:40 A great call from mission control.

09:42 The second stage engine has turned cold and the kick stage has separated,

09:46 ready to begin the payload deployment process.

09:49 This mission, of course, is a little different to a regular Electron mission,

09:53 so here is a reminder of how today's two deployments will work.

09:57 Now that the kick stage has been released, it will now go into a phasing orbit of Earth.

10:03 Because it's been set into an elliptical orbit from its perigee,

10:07 it needs to head around to the other side of the planet to an apogee of 520 kilometers

10:13 before it fires up the Curie engine to course correct into a circular orbit.

10:19 Once it does, NeonSat-1 will be deployed to begin its mission for Keist,

10:23 and that will be phase one for the kick stage.

10:26 Phase two will see it light up its engine again to perform an apogee raise to 1,000 kilometers,

10:32 the target altitude for NASA's satellite.

10:35 That apogee raise will bring the kick stage out of a circular orbit

10:38 and back into another elliptical one.

10:41 Here, the kick stage will do another half pass of Earth before the dots reconnect again at 1,000 kilometers

10:46 where it will light up its Curie engine for a third time to circularize its orbit before payload deployment.

10:52 Once that's done, it will be on to phase three.

10:55 The Curie engine will ignite a fourth and final time to undo its circularization

11:01 and bring it back into an elliptical orbit.

11:04 This orbit lowering maneuver will help to speed up the kick stage's deorbit,

11:08 doing our best to keep space as tidy as possible.

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