NASA and Firefly Aerospace are now targeting 9:03 p.m. PDT, July 1 (12:03 a.m. EDT, July 2) for the launch of eight CubeSats as part of NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative’s (CSLI) ELaNa (Educational Launch of Nanosatellites) 43.
Firefly Aerospace’s “Noise of Summer” will launch on an Alpha rocket from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
NASA and Firefly Aerospace are targeting no earlier than Wednesday, June 26, for the launch of eight CubeSats as part of NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative’s (CSLI) ELaNa (Educational Launch of Nanosatellites) 43. The 30-minute launch window will open at 9 p.m. PDT on June 26 (12 a.m. EDT on June 27).
Firefly Aerospace’s “Noise of Summer” will launch on an Alpha rocket from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The CubeSats flying on ELaNa 43 are:
Firefly Aerospace is one of three companies selected under NASA’s Launch Services Program Venture-Class Launch Services Demonstration 2 (VCLS Demo 2) contract awarded in December 2020. The venture-class contracts illustrate how NASA offers opportunities for new launch providers to grow the commercial industry at all levels, which will result in cost-effective competition for NASA missions in the future.
Follow NASA’s Small Satellite blog for launch updates.
NASA and Rocket Lab are targeting no earlier than Wednesday, May 22, 2024, for the first of two launches of the agency’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission to study heat loss to space in Earth’s polar regions. For the PREFIRE mission, two CubeSats will launch on two different flights aboard the company’s Electron rockets from Launch Complex 1 in Māhia, New Zealand. Each launch will carry one satellite.
NASA’s PREFIRE mission will fill a gap in our understanding of how much of Earth’s heat is lost to space from the polar regions. By capturing measurements over the poles that can only be gathered from space, PREFIRE will enable researchers to systematically study the planet’s heat emissions in the far-infrared – with ten times finer wavelength resolution than any previous sensor.
The Arctic and Antarctic help regulate Earth’s climate by radiating heat initially absorbed at the tropics back into space. But for regions like the Arctic, the spectrum of 60% of the energy escaping to space hasn’t been systematically measured. Filling in this picture is important for understanding which parts of the polar environment are responsible for heat loss and why the Arctic has warmed more than 2.5 times faster than the rest of the planet. In addition to helping us understand how the poles serve as Earth’s thermostat, PREFIRE observations of this heat exchange can improve our understanding of the mechanisms of polar ice loss and related questions of sea level rise and sea ice loss.
The instruments will fly on two identical CubeSats – one instrument per CubeSat – in asynchronous, near-polar orbits.
NASA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison jointly developed the PREFIRE mission. The agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, located in Southern California, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and provided the spectrometers. Blue Canyon Technologies built the CubeSats, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison will process the collected data.
The launch, which Rocket Lab named “Ready, Aim, PREFIRE,” will be followed by a second CubeSat mission launch several weeks later.. The second launch, which the company calls “PREFIRE and Ice,” will also lift off from New Zealand on an Electron rocket. NASA’s Launch Services Program selected Rocket Lab to launch both spacecraft as part of the agency’s VADR (Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare) contract.
Follow launch updates on NASA’s Small Satellite Missions blog.
To learn more about the PREFIRE mission, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/prefire/
NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative is sending a group of four small satellites, called CubeSats, to the International Space Station as ELaNa 51 (Educational Launch of Nanosatellites). These small payloads have been developed by NASA and universities and will be deployed from low Earth orbit.
Once circling Earth, the satellites will help demonstrate and mature technologies meant to improve solar power generation, detect gamma ray bursts, determine crop water usage, and measure root-zone soil and snowpack moisture levels.
The suite of satellites will hitch a ride aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft set to deliver additional science, crew supplies, and hardware for the company’s 30th commercial resupply services mission for NASA. Liftoff is targeted for 4:55 p.m. EDT Thursday, March 21, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
First Cornhusker State CubeSat
The first CubeSat from Nebraska is the Big Red Sat-1, which aims to investigate and improve the power production ability of solar cells. It is built by a team of middle and high school students mentored by University of Nebraska-Lincoln undergraduate engineering students.
The satellite measuring 1U, or one unit, (about four inches cubed), will test out Perovskite cells, a new type of solar cell designed to enhance power production with and without direct exposure to sunlight. The team will compare the power production to that of typical cells, called gallium arsenide solar cells, also flying on the CubeSat.
Detecting Gamma Ray Bursts
BurstCube is a NASA-developed 6U CubeSat designed to search the sky for brief flashes of high-energy light such as gamma-ray bursts, solar flares, and other hard X-ray transients.
Long and short gamma ray bursts are stellar remnants that can be the result of some of the universe’s most powerful explosions like the collapse or collision of massive stars, or when a neutron star collides with a black hole. BurstCube will use a new kind of compact, low-power silicon photomultiplier array to detect the elusive bursts of light.
With the ability to detect these brief flashes from space, BurstCube can help alert other observatories to witness changes in the universe as they happen. Astronomers can also benefit from the information because these bursts are important sources for gravitational wave discoveries.
Rooting Out Earth Water Sources from Space
The SigNals of Opportunity P-band Investigation, or SNoOPI, is a technology demonstration CubeSat designed to improve the detection of moisture levels on a global scale of underground root-zone and within snowpacks.
Root zone soil moisture and snow water equivalent play critical roles in the hydrologic cycle, impacting agricultural food production, water management, and weather phenomena. When scientists understand the amount of water in the soil, crop growth can be accurately forecasted, and irrigation can become more efficient.
The 6U CubeSat is collaboratively developed by NASA, Purdue University in Indiana, Mississippi State University, and the United States Department of Agriculture.
The fourth in the suite of small satellites, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s HyTI (Hyperspectral Thermal Imager) is also a 6U CubeSat designed to study water sources.
Developed in partnership with NASA to map irrigated and rainfed cropland, HyTI is a pathfinder demonstration that packs the Hyperspectral Imager Instrument, temporal resolution thermal infrared imager focal plane technology, and high-performance onboard computing to help better understand crop water use and water productivity of major world crops.
With these tools, HyTI can help develop a more detailed understanding of the movement, distribution, and availability of water and its variability over time and space, an important contribution to global food and water security issues.
These payloads were selected through NASA’s CSLI, which provides U.S. educational institutions, nonprofits with an education/outreach component, informal educational institutions (museums and science centers), and NASA centers with access to space at a low cost.
Once the CubeSat selections are made, NASA’s Launch Services Program works to pair them with a launch that is best suited to carry them as auxiliary payloads.
For more information about NASA’s CSLI, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/home/CubeSats_initiative
The final two TROPICS CubeSats successfully deployed from a Rocket Lab Electron rocket after launch. The rocket named Coming To A Storm Near You lifted off at at 11:46 p.m. EDT Thursday, May 25, (3:46 p.m. NZST Friday, May 26th).
The team is now working to seek signal acquisition from this pair of TROPICS CubeSats. NASA will continue to assess data from periodic pass opportunities over ground stations located across the globe. It is not unexpected for CubeSats to take some time to establish communications. We will provide confirmation when signal is acquired.
While the launches are complete, the scientific work on orbit for the constellation is just beginning. So, continue to follow along for blog updates and stay connected with the mission on social media. This concludes our coverage of this launch.
Twitter: @NASA_LSP, @NASAEarth, @NASAGoddard, @NASA, @RocketLab
Facebook: NASA, NASA LSP, RocketLabUSA
Instagram: @NASA, @NASAEarth, @RocketLabUSA
NASA’s TROPICS CubeSats have deployed from the Rocket Lab Electron kick stage. The two CubeSats will reach low Earth orbit to begin their mission.
Each of the CubeSats was designed to last approximately two years, but analysis, lifetime testing of key parts, and on-orbit experiences with similar hardware could help the satellites surpass their design lifetime.
The second stage of Rocket Lab’s Electron has cut off and separated from the payload fairing’s kick stage. In around 20 minutes, the kick stage engine will ignite and burn for almost four minutes before it cuts off.
The Electron rocket has successfully completed the battery hot swap, switching power between batteries. The next milestone is second stage separation in about two minutes.
NASA’s two TROPICS CubeSats have lifted off atop Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 at Māhia, New Zealand at 11:46 p.m. EDT Thursday, May 25, (3:46 p.m. NZST Friday, May 26th).
A series of milestones will occur within several minutes after launch. The rocket will reach Max-Q – the speed at which the vehicle reaches its maximum dynamic pressure – followed by main engine cutoff of Electron’s first stage and separation from the second stage.
TROPICS will launch aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket, on a mission nicknamed Coming To A Storm Near You, from Launch Complex 1 at Māhia, New Zealand. The first mission – Rocket Like A Hurricane – launched on May 8 from New Zealand was Rocket Lab’s 36th Electron launch overall.
The Electron is a 60-foot (18 m) tall, vertically launched, three-stage rocket including a kick stage for payload deployment that uses liquid oxygen and kerosene as propellants.
As an orbital-class small rocket, each Electron can carry payloads weighing up to about 700 pounds (320 kilograms). With an exterior made of a carbon fiber composite, each Electron rocket uses nine Rutherford sea-level engines on its first stage, and a single Rutherford vacuum engine on its second stage. These engines use an electric turbopump powered by batteries to deliver propellants/fuel to the engines and are the world’s first 3D-printed, electric-pump-fed rocket engine. The TROPICS satellites are protected during launch through the atmosphere by a payload fairing, while an extra stage, called a kick stage, powered by a single Curie engine, will perform a plane change maneuver to position the CubeSats at a 30-degree inclination. Rocket Lab has been working to make the Electron’s first stage reusable, recovering boosters on several previous flights, though no attempt at recovery will be made for today’s launch.
In addition to the recent TROPICS launch, previous NASA missions that launched on an Electron rocket are the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE), as well as the Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNA) 19 and 32 missions.
During today’s launch, most of the Electron operators will be on console at the Auckland Production Complex, just outside New Zealand’s most populous city. Remaining launch team members will be within Rocket Lab’s private range control facilities at Launch Complex 1, located around 250 miles southeast of Auckland on North Island’s east coast. NASA’s Launch Services Program team and spacecraft customer team will be on console at Rocket Lab’s Integration and Control Facility (ICF) in Wallops, Virginia.
