"It's time to do business" is delayed
Already on Wednesday, June 27, the first commercial launch of “It's Business Time” of the Electron launch vehicle was postponed. Initially, it was supposed to start on June 23, but the launch was canceled due to problems with the ground equipment, and on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday the weather was inappropriate.
Photo: Rocket Lab
This is not the first transfer start. In spring, the start was planned for April 20-May 3, but was postponed due to incorrect behavior of the motor controller. But while the team understood the causes of the problem and dealt with its elimination, two more satellites were added to the rocket. As a result, five devices should go into orbit - two “LEMUR-2” from Spire Global, school IRVINE01, meteorological CICERO from GeoOptics and technology demonstrator NABEO.
Satellites LEMUR-2, photo Spire Global
LEMUR-2 - a series of satellites (ninth already went), designed mainly to monitor the movement of ships. They also have equipment for determining temperature, pressure and humidity, which records changes in the signal from GPS satellites after it passes through the Earth’s atmosphere.
IRVINE01 was created by students of five California schools with the help and support of universities and industry experts. Its main equipment is a three-megapixel camera, with which schoolchildren are going to photograph stars and planets and measure distances to them.
CICERO, drawing Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems
CICERO uses the same method as LEMUR-2 for measuring GPS and Galileo signals passing through the atmosphere, and in addition it captures the Galileo signal reflected from the surface, determining the characteristics of the ocean and ice. The data obtained will be used in meteorology and climatology.
NABEO, photo by HPS GmbH
And finally, NABEO is a technological demonstrator of passive mixing of spent satellites from orbit - after the separation of four vehicles, it remains attached to the third stage and will unfold an ultra-thin film in order to quickly reduce the stage from orbit.
The total mass of the devices is estimated at 40 kg, which is several times less than the missile carrying capacity - nominal 150 kg and a maximum of 225 kg into an orbit of 500 km high.
Electron on the launch pad, photo Rocket Lab
For the first time, the start was scheduled for June 23 and managed to reach the -23 minute mark. But it didn’t come any further - a problem was discovered in one of the antennas of the ground tracking system. A small pause quickly turned into an hour, and as a result, the launch that day was canceled.
Sunday and Monday have already fallen due to the weather. The launch window is open for two weeks - from June 23 to July 6 from 12:30 to 16:30 NZST (00:30 - 04:30 UTC, 03: 30-7: 30 MSK), and, from past experience, not a fact that the rocket will fly away on Tuesday. The second launch, at the beginning of this year, took place from the sixth attempt, and after it the staff of Rocket Lab go in T-shirts “I don’t want any more stops”. The phrase comes from the dialogue in preparation for the canceled launch:
Starting from the second launch, the third stage of the Curie (in honor of the physicists Pierre and Maria Curie, who studied radioactivity) is working on an environmentally friendly single-component fuel with an engine of 120 N (12 kg).
Step Curie, photo Rocket Lab
And, if everything is in order, then the rocket will fly according to the following sequence diagram:
It is worth noting that the Rocket Lab took on an impressive pace - in May, the sixth rocket was preparing for the final assembly, and in total for 2018 we can expect 8 launches.
UPD: start-up was transferred already on Wednesday due to weather conditions
UPD: due to the newly appeared problem with the engine controller, there will be no start-up window in this launch window , the date of the next start-up window is still unknown.
Photo: Rocket Lab
This is not the first transfer start. In spring, the start was planned for April 20-May 3, but was postponed due to incorrect behavior of the motor controller. But while the team understood the causes of the problem and dealt with its elimination, two more satellites were added to the rocket. As a result, five devices should go into orbit - two “LEMUR-2” from Spire Global, school IRVINE01, meteorological CICERO from GeoOptics and technology demonstrator NABEO.
Satellites LEMUR-2, photo Spire Global
LEMUR-2 - a series of satellites (ninth already went), designed mainly to monitor the movement of ships. They also have equipment for determining temperature, pressure and humidity, which records changes in the signal from GPS satellites after it passes through the Earth’s atmosphere.
IRVINE01 was created by students of five California schools with the help and support of universities and industry experts. Its main equipment is a three-megapixel camera, with which schoolchildren are going to photograph stars and planets and measure distances to them.
CICERO, drawing Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems
CICERO uses the same method as LEMUR-2 for measuring GPS and Galileo signals passing through the atmosphere, and in addition it captures the Galileo signal reflected from the surface, determining the characteristics of the ocean and ice. The data obtained will be used in meteorology and climatology.
NABEO, photo by HPS GmbH
And finally, NABEO is a technological demonstrator of passive mixing of spent satellites from orbit - after the separation of four vehicles, it remains attached to the third stage and will unfold an ultra-thin film in order to quickly reduce the stage from orbit.
The total mass of the devices is estimated at 40 kg, which is several times less than the missile carrying capacity - nominal 150 kg and a maximum of 225 kg into an orbit of 500 km high.
Electron on the launch pad, photo Rocket Lab
For the first time, the start was scheduled for June 23 and managed to reach the -23 minute mark. But it didn’t come any further - a problem was discovered in one of the antennas of the ground tracking system. A small pause quickly turned into an hour, and as a result, the launch that day was canceled.
Sunday and Monday have already fallen due to the weather. The launch window is open for two weeks - from June 23 to July 6 from 12:30 to 16:30 NZST (00:30 - 04:30 UTC, 03: 30-7: 30 MSK), and, from past experience, not a fact that the rocket will fly away on Tuesday. The second launch, at the beginning of this year, took place from the sixth attempt, and after it the staff of Rocket Lab go in T-shirts “I don’t want any more stops”. The phrase comes from the dialogue in preparation for the canceled launch:
- Do you want more stopping points?
- I do not understand
- you want to stop the prelaunch countdown, at -18 or -20 minutes, for example?
- I do not want any more stops
Starting from the second launch, the third stage of the Curie (in honor of the physicists Pierre and Maria Curie, who studied radioactivity) is working on an environmentally friendly single-component fuel with an engine of 120 N (12 kg).
Step Curie, photo Rocket Lab
And, if everything is in order, then the rocket will fly according to the following sequence diagram:
- 00:00 Start
- 02:42 Turning off the engines of the first stage
- 02:45 Department of the first stage
- 02:48 Ignition of the second stage
- 03:06 Resetting head fairing
- 09:15 Shutting down second stage engines, orbit 500x250 km, inclination 85 °
- 51:01 Third stage engine ignition
- 52:07 Turning off the third stage engine, orbit 500x500 km
It is worth noting that the Rocket Lab took on an impressive pace - in May, the sixth rocket was preparing for the final assembly, and in total for 2018 we can expect 8 launches.
UPD: start-up was transferred already on Wednesday due to weather conditions
UPD: due to the newly appeared problem with the engine controller, there will be no start-up window in this launch window , the date of the next start-up window is still unknown.