NASA and the Private Sector - Page 224

LONG BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab” or “the Company”), a leading launch and space systems company, has supported a significant milestone for DARPA and the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Mandrake-2 mission.

In June, the two Mandrake-2 spacecraft, Able and Baker, successfully demonstrated closing and maintaining an optical communications link for the full test duration of 40 minutes at a range of 114 km. In that time, more than 280 Gb of data were transferred between the satellites. This is an historic step in DARPA and SDA’s vision provide an assured, resilient, low-latency, high-volume data transport communication system worldwide via a mesh network of optically interconnected space vehicles.

“This constitutes a game-changing advancement and a critical enabler for proliferated space architectures,” said Stephen Forbes, who is program manager of the Blackjack program in DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office.

Rocket Lab has played a leading role in the mission through its team at Advanced Solutions Inc. (ASI), a Colorado-based aerospace engineering firm delivering mission proven space software, mission simulation, and testing solutions. Acquired by Rocket Lab in October 2021, ASI has been part of the Mandrake-2 mission from the beginning of the program, contributing to delivery of space vehicles at the launch site in less than nine months.

Rocket Lab provided to the mission MAX Flight Software, Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) design and analysis, MAX Ground Data System, and mission operations. Since launch, the spacecraft have been operated from the Rocket Lab Operations Center in Littleton, Colorado. As part of operations, the Rocket Lab team is responsible for daily spacecraft health and status monitoring, payload tasking, and trajectory control between the spacecraft to support the optical cross-link testing. Rocket Lab also supplied the star trackers and reactions wheels for the spacecraft, enabling the high-precision attitude determination and control required to achieve the optical communications link. The spacecraft separation system for the mission was also supplied by Rocket Lab.

“This is a significant step toward the realization of global high-speed space network and I could not be more proud of the teams at Rocket Lab and ASI for making it possible,” said Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Peter Beck. “Once again this is a solid demonstration of the efficiencies and reliability delivered by Rocket Lab’s vertically integrated capabilities.”

The Mandrake-2 spacecraft were developed as an early risk reduction for DARPA’s Blackjack program to demonstrate high-bandwidth optical inter-satellite links (OISL) via advanced laser communication technology. The spacecraft were developed and launch-ready in just nine months, with final testing of both spacecraft taking place at Rocket Lab’s Colorado facility prior to shipment to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.

Both the satellites and payloads are healthy and performing well. The Rocket Lab team looks forward to continuing supporting DARPA and SDA to further characterize and demonstrate this critical capability on-orbit.

When SpaceX next launches a Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station, one of the astronauts aboard will be Russian.

NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, announced on Friday that they had reached an agreement that would give Russian astronauts seats on American-built spacecraft in exchange for NASA astronauts’ getting rides to orbit on Russian Soyuz rockets.

Also on Friday, Russian president Vladimir V. Putin signed a decree dismissing Dmitry Rogozin, who since 2016 had led Roscosmos, the state corporation that oversees Russia’s space activities.

Russians and Americans in orbit have sustained their close cooperation despite the fracturing of ties between the two countries after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. The relationship also endured Mr. Rogozin’s repeated belligerent pronouncements in the Russian news media and on his Twitter and Telegram accounts.

In April, Mr. Rogozin demanded that economic sanctions against Russia be lifted and said that he had submitted a proposal urging the Russian government to leave the space station.

This week, after the European Space Agency formally pulled out of a collaboration with Russia on sending a robotic rover to Mars, Mr. Rogozin said Russian astronauts on the space station would stop using a robotic arm built by the Europeans and lobbed disparaging words at Josef Aschbacher, the director general of the European Space agency, and Josep Borrell Fontelles, a top European Union foreign policy official.

“I, in turn, give a command to our crew on the ISS to stop working with the European ERA manipulator,” Mr. Rogozin wrote on his Telegram channel. “Let Aschbacher himself and his boss Borrell fly into space and do at least something useful in their lives.”

Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, insisted that the move had nothing to do with Mr. Rogozin’s performance and promised that the former director would soon be employed again.

“This is not connected with any issues,” Mr. Peskov said Friday, according to the Russian state news media. “In due time, Rogozin will be employed and will start a new job.”

Mr. Rogozin’s successor will be Yuri Borisov, who takes over Roscosmos after his own ousting as the deputy prime minister overseeing Russia’s military industrial complex. Mr. Borisov is a longtime government official who also previously served as a deputy defense minister. Unlike Mr. Rogozin, he is not known for being a firebrand in public.

NASA officials have been steadfast in insisting that operations on the space station remain normal, usually letting Mr. Rogozin’s comments pass without comment.

Last week, however, NASA put out a statement rebuking Russia after Roscosmos distributed photographs of the three Russian astronauts on the space station holding the flags of pro-Russia separatists in two provinces of Ukraine.

On Friday, NASA resumed highlighting the cooperation.

“Flying integrated crews ensures there are appropriately trained crew members on board the station for essential maintenance and spacewalks,” NASA said in a statement. “It also protects against contingencies such as a problem with any crew spacecraft, serious crew medical issues or an emergency aboard the station that requires a crew and the vehicle they are assigned to return to Earth sooner than planned.”

For example, without the crew swap agreement, if a problem grounded new Soyuz launches, then at some point, all of the Russian astronauts on the station would return to Earth, leaving the Russian-built segment of the station untended. That could put all of the station in danger.

“The station was designed to be interdependent and relies on contributions from each space agency to function,” NASA said. “No one agency has the capability to function independent of the others.”

Under the agreement, there is no exchange of money between NASA and Roscosmos.

From 2006 to 2020, NASA had paid Russia an average of $56 million a seat to take 71 astronauts to the space station. After the retirement of NASA’s space shuttles in 2011, the Soyuz was the only way NASA astronauts could go to orbit. That need ended when SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft became operational in 2020.

Anna Kikina, a Russian astronaut, will join two NASA astronauts, Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, and Koichi Wakata of Japan aboard Crew-5, the next SpaceX mission to the space station, currently scheduled for September. Another Russian astronaut, Andrei Fedyaev, is scheduled to be a member of the crew of the following SpaceX mission in spring next year.

NASA astronauts, starting with Frank Rubio and Loral O’Hara, will be part of the crews on upcoming Soyuz launches.

Rocket Lab, which recently shot for the Moon, expects to create more than 110 new hi-tech jobs in New Zealand this year as it expands into a new complex in Auckland.

The growth was driven by engineering and design development support for Rocket Lab’s new large Neutron rocket, acceleration of the Electron rocket reusability rocket programme, and a new high-volume production line to manufacture satellite components for large scale constellations.

Rocket Lab has expanded into a new 24,000+ sq/ft research & development facility in Mt Wellington, as it grows its operations in Auckland.

The company said it had increased its New Zealand footprint 250% since 2018.

With the growth in R&D programmes, increase in launches and expanded satellite manufacturing services, Rocket Lab expected to create more than 110 new jobs in New Zealand in 2022.

Rocket Lab founder and chief executive Peter Beck said securing the new space expanded its physical footprint and its ability to support hundreds of missions.

“Our Auckland Production Complex is key to us being able to both launch more frequently, by building more Electrons faster or reflying them as our rocket reuse technology advances, and scaling our space systems division across our global locations – while at the same time, tapping into homegrown talent to work on world-leading technology and global missions,” he said.

“The growth of our operations in New Zealand will bring more high-tech jobs to the country and support the economic growth of both our local space industry and the Auckland region.”

The new facility is beside Rocket Lab’s existing Auckland Production Complex (APC).

It houses large-scale robotics and extensive manufacturing capability to enable mass production of the Electron rocket, a global Mission Control Centre to support Electron launches and spacecraft operations, and office space for many of Rocket Lab’s approximately 600 current New Zealand staff.

Late last year Rocket Lab added to APC a high-volume production line for reaction wheels, a critical component for many small satellites.

The announcement is the latest development in Rocket Lab’s global growth, including the acquisition of three companies in late 2021 and early 2022 that expanded Rocket Lab’s locations to five states in the United States.

Rocket Lab is also growing its footprint in Virginia, the home of its second Electron launch pad, with ongoing development of a production facility to build Rocket Lab’s new large Neutron launch vehicle.

It recently completed the build of a third launch pad for its Electron rocket, located at Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, Hawke’s Bay.