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Rocket Lab plans to send small satellites to the Moon with Photon
Only really, really little astronauts need apply
By Richard Speed 21 Oct 2019 at 15:00
With launchpads in New Zealand and (soon) the US, small-sat flinger Rocket Lab toasted a ninth successful launch of its Electron rocket by taking aim at destinations beyond Low Earth Orbit.
Having successfully sent the payload of its most recent mission, "As The Crow Flies", to an altitude of more than 1,000km, CEO Peter Beck is now eyeing Geostationary or Lunar orbits for the small satellites flung into space by its Electron launcher.
The plan is to use the existing Electron rocket, the Photon small spacecraft platform, and "a dedicated bulk maneuver stage" to send a payload on a lunar flyby or into lunar orbit, to Lagrange points or to the Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) favoured by NASA for its Lunar Gateway station.
NASA has announced plans for a mission to send a microwave-oven sized CubeSat into a NRHO by the end of 2020. The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) mission is designed to check out spacecraft systems and communications ahead of the arrival of humans.
More:
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/10/21/rocket_lab_aims_photons_at_the_moon/
