Monolith

Meet Monolith, an Air Force Research Laboratory-sponsored demonstration satellite.

Monolith will demonstrate the use of a deployable sensor, where the sensor’s mass is a substantial fraction of the total mass of the spacecraft. This changes the spacecraft’s dynamic properties and testing ability to maintain spacecraft attitude control.

Data from the small deployable sensor will enable the use of smaller satellite buses when building future deployable sensors such as for weather satellites, reducing cost, complexity, and development timelines.

Originally to launch from Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on NASA’s Wallops Island, Virginia, the mission was transferred to LC-1 in New Zealand while NASA continues certification processes for autonomous flight termination system software for launches from LC-2.

Photo: Electron's mission patch. Credit: Rocket Lab.

Electron

Meet Electron, Rocket Lab's answer to the growing demand for dedicated small satellite launchers.

Electron flew for the first time in May 2017 and uses Rutherford engines, the first electric engines to power an orbital rocket.

The rocket costs approximately $6 million (USD) per mission before reuse is accounted for.

It has two primary stages that burn liquid oxygen and liquid kerosene as well as a kickstage that burns an unknown monopropellant, or storable fuel.

Rocket Lab names each Electron mission after a unique or quirky element of the flight. Past examples include "That's A Funny Looking Cactus" for odd looking cacti in New Mexico where one payload customer was located, and "Return To Sender" the first time a first stage was recovered for inspection and partial reuse.

The mission has been named ‘It’s a Little Chile Up Here’ in a nod to the beloved green chile of New Mexico where the Space Test Program is based.

Rocket Lab recently introduced improvements to Electron that allow it to take 75 kg more to orbit on each mission as well as a wider payload fairing to accommodate larger satellites.

Rocket Lab is also working to make Electron's first stage reusable, and the company will attempt to recovery the first stage from this mission.

Picture: Electron. Credit: Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1A (LC-1A) on the Māhia Peninsula on New Zealand's North Island is part of the company's first launch site, with another under construction at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia.

An isolated location, the Māhia launch site hosted its first orbital launch attempt of Electron in May 2017 and its first successful orbital launch in January 2018.

Together with Rocket Lab's third launch pad in Virginia, their launch sites can support up to 132 Electron launch opportunities every year.

The Māhia location has two launch pads (LC-1A and LC-1B) and two separate integration hangers to permit simultaneous and protected processing of two payloads for flight at the same time.

LC-1A is the original pad at the Māhia site, with LC-1B launching its first mission in February 2022.

Photo: Rocket Lab