Rocket Lab Supports Significant Milestone for DARPA and Space Development Agency on the Mandrake-2 Mission
July 13 2022 - 5:00PM
Business Wire
Mission Achieves Successful Optical Crosslinks
Between the Two Satellites
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.
+ About Rocket Lab
Founded in 2006, Rocket Lab is an end-to-end space company with
an established track record of mission success. We deliver reliable
launch services, satellite manufacture, spacecraft components, and
on-orbit management solutions that make it faster, easier and more
affordable to access space. Headquartered in Long Beach,
California, Rocket Lab designs and manufactures the Electron small
orbital launch vehicle and the Photon satellite platform and is
developing the Neutron 8-ton payload class launch vehicle. Since
its first orbital launch in January 2018, Rocket Lab’s Electron
launch vehicle has become the second most frequently launched U.S.
rocket annually and has delivered 148 satellites to orbit for
private and public sector organizations, enabling operations in
national security, scientific research, space debris mitigation,
Earth observation, climate monitoring, and communications. Rocket
Lab’s Photon spacecraft platform has been selected to support NASA
missions to the Moon and Mars, as well as the first private
commercial mission to Venus. Rocket Lab has three launch pads at
two launch sites, including two launch pads at a private orbital
launch site located in New Zealand and a second launch site in
Virginia, USA which is expected to become operational in 2022. To
learn more, visit www.rocketlabusa.com.
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+ Rocket Lab Media Contact Morgan Bailey
media@rocketlabusa.com
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