Terran Orbital Delivers NASA Pathfinder (PTD-3) Satellite Carrying MIT Lincoln Laboratory Payload Ahead of SpaceX Transporter-5 Mission
PTD-3 is a 6-unit (6U) CubeSat built and integrated by Terran Orbital to host and support launch and on-orbit operations of the TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) payload funded by NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program and developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MITLL). The TBIRD mission is the second mission in the PTD series funded by the Small Spacecraft Technology program in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.
CubeSats Take a Bus into Space
This bus doesn’t use wheels to move around, but a CubeSat can’t get anywhere without it. In the world of these small, standardized, inexpensive satellites, a “bus” refers to the hardware foundation that provides it with power, communications, thermal stability, and other “services” a payload needs to function.
CAPSTONE Uses Gravity on Unusual, Efficient Route to the Moon
CAPSTONE is planned to launch no earlier than May 31 aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. The CubeSat will start its mission joined with the Lunar Photon, an interplanetary third stage developed by Rocket Lab.
Terran Orbital Announces Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Contract Award
This Agreement aims to research synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite formation flying concepts and joint data collection techniques. The potential prototype will provide data products from at least two SAR satellites flying in formation and demonstrate novel data processing algorithms.
Rocket Lab Begins Payload Integration for CAPSTONE Mission to the Moon
CAPSTONE will be launched to an initial low Earth orbit by Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle and then placed on a ballistic lunar transfer by Rocket Lab’s Lunar Photon spacecraft bus. Unlike the Apollo lunar missions of the 1960s and 70s, which took a free return trajectory to the Moon, this fuel efficient ballistic lunar transfer makes it possible to deploy CAPSTONE to such a distant orbit using a small launch vehicle.
Terran Orbital Delivers NASA’s CubeSat Proximity Operations Demonstration to SpaceX Transporter-5 for Launch
The CPOD project is being led by Terran Orbital with funding from NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.