Welcome to launch day for NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail Mission! This next-generation solar sail technology, which uses the pressure of sunlight for propulsion, waits for liftoff atop a Rocket Lab Electron rocket at the company’s Launch Complex 1 in Māhia, New Zealand. This launch will send the solar sail satellite to low Earth orbit, where it will test technologies designed to advance future space travel and expand our understanding of our Sun and solar system.
A one-hour launch window opens at 6:00 p.m. EDT (10:00 a.m. Wednesday, April 24, in New Zealand). Rocket Lab is providing a live launch broadcast, available on the company’s website approximately 30 minutes before launch.
Today’s launch aims to deploy the spacecraft about 600 miles above Earth, which is more than twice the altitude of the International Space Station. Following an initial flight stage lasting about two months, the microwave-oven sized CubeSat will deploy its solar sail. The mission consists of a series of maneuvers to demonstrate orbit raising and lowering, using only the pressure of sunlight acting on the sail.
Here’s a look at some of today’s upcoming milestones. All times are approximate:
- -00:02:00 Launch autosequence begins
- -00:00:02 Rutherford engines ignite
- 00:00:00 Lift-off
- 00:00:55 Vehicle Supersonic
- 00:01:07 Max-Q
- +00:02:24 Main Engine Cut Off (MECO) on Electron’s first stage
- +00:02:28 Stage 1 separates from Stage 2
- +00:02:31 Electron’s Stage 2 Rutherford engine ignites
- +00:03:07 Fairing separation
- +00:06:21 Battery hot-swap
- +00:09:11 Second Engine Cut Off (SECO) on Stage 2
- +00:09:15 Stage 2 separation from Kick Stage
- +00:47:09 Kick Stage Curie engine ignition
- +00:49:16 Kick Stage Curie engine cut off
- ~+01:45:36 Payload deployment for NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System
Follow launch updates on this blog and stay connected with the mission on social media:
Twitter: @NASAAmes, @NASA, @RocketLab
Facebook: NASA Ames, NASA, RocketLabUSA
Instagram: @NASAAmes, @NASA, @RocketLabUSA
NASA Ames manages the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System project and designed and built the onboard camera diagnostic system. NASA Langley designed and built the deployable composite booms and solar sail system. NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology (SST) program office based at NASA Ames and led by the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), funds and manages the mission. NASA STMD’s Game Changing Development program developed the deployable composite boom technology. Rocket Lab USA, Inc of Long Beach, California is providing launch services. NanoAvionics is providing the spacecraft bus.