Rocket Lab

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A community for discussing Rocket Lab, the US/New Zealand aerospace company. All posts related to Rocket Lab are welcome.

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Solar Sail CubeSat Has Deployed from Rocket - Small Satellite Missions (blogs.nasa.gov)

submitted 7 months ago by absGeekNZ to c/rocketlab

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[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I found a relevant bit in a NASASpaceflight article: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2024/04/launch-roundup-042224/

The spacecraft will spend a couple of months in an initial flight and checkout phase before deployment of the booms and reflective sail. The craft needs to be at a sufficient altitude for the tiny force of sunlight that will be applied to the sail to overcome atmospheric drag. At this altitude, this force is said to be roughly equivalent to the weight of a paperclip resting on your palm. The craft will then perform a series of pointing maneuvers to demonstrate orbit raising and lowering which will span weeks, so it could be July or later before any results are known.

It sounds like they aren't sending the spacecraft to a particular destination, but just testing the feasibility of the technology for potential future missions.

[–] Dave 2 points 7 months ago

Ah, and I misunderstood what "deployed" meant in the original post. They haven't deployed the sail yet, just got the thing into orbit.