On October 21, Rocket Lab of Huntington Beach, CA unveiled plans to support extended range missions to medium, geostationary, and lunar orbits with the company’s Photon satellite platform.
Less
than two years after opening access to low Earth orbit (LEO) for small
satellites with the Electron launch vehicle, Rocket Lab is now bringing medium,
geostationary, and lunar orbits within reach for small satellites. Rocket Lab
will combine its Electron launch vehicle, Photon small spacecraft platform, and
a dedicated bulk maneuver stage to accomplish extended-range missions and
deliver small spacecraft to lunar flyby, Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO),
L1/L2 points, or Lunar orbit. These capabilities can then be expanded to
deliver even larger payloads throughout cis-lunar space, including as high as
geostationary orbit (GEO).
Rocket Lab Founder and Chief Executive, Peter Beck, said there is increasing international interest in lunar and beyond LEO exploration from government and private sectors.
“Small satellites will play a crucial role in science and exploration, as well as providing communications and navigation infrastructure to support returning humans to the Moon – they play a vital role as pathfinders to retire risk and lay down infrastructure for future missions,” he said. “Just like LEO small spacecraft, many potential exploration instruments and full satellites are on shelves waiting for launch to deeper space. In the same way we opened access to LEO for smallsats, Rocket Lab is poised to become the dedicated ride to the Moon and beyond for small satellites.”
The
experience gained through multiple orbital Electron launches, and iterative
performance improvements to Photon’s Curie propulsion system, enables Rocket
Lab to undertake extended range missions with proven technology and significant
experience. All systems for extended missions are derived from high-heritage
flight-proven equipment, including the Curie engine, Kick Stage, Electron
composite tanks, and demonstrated expertise in launch and spacecraft guidance,
navigation and control.
Rocket
Lab’s most recent mission, ‘As The Crow Flies’, was the company’s 9th Electron
launch and it saw Electron’s Kick Stage deploy a payload to an altitude of more
than 1,000 km. The mission successfully demonstrated recent upgrades to the
3D-printed Curie propulsion system for Photon, including the move to a
bi-propellant design for greatly improved performance.
Photon in particular was architected for use in both LEO and interplanetary missions, with radiation-tolerant avionics, deep space-capable communications and navigation technology, and high-performance space-storable propulsion capable of multiple restarts on orbit. The combination of Photon and Electron has been designed as a complete solution for responsive LEO, MEO and cis-lunar missions, as early as Q4 2020.
Source: Rocket Lab
By 
