Space enthusiasts and rocket launches – get your alarm clocks ready, because tomorrow you're going to get up early. At 6 a.m. WATCH, or any moment in the next two hours, Rocket Lab intends to launch its Electron rocket into space, and the launch will be broadcast right here starting at 5:30 a.m. ChatGPT tells us a little about the launch of the lesser-known company.
This launch is called "To the Moon Awakens" because it marks the company's return to operations after a three-month hiatus, following a malfunction in its previous launch in September. That launch destroyed the satellite that was supposed to be launched into space, and the company had to stop operations until the cause of the malfunction was found, which turned out to be a component that caused a short circuit in the second stage of the rocket (i.e., its "head", which performs the later stages of the launch at high altitude).
On board the "electron" will be a small satellite of the Japanese company iQPS, which builds and maintains photography satellites that provide a top-down view of the Earth. The new satellite is called Tsukuyomi-1, with Tsukuyomi being the name of the moon god in Japanese culture, hence the name of the mission. It will join a similar satellite of the company at an altitude of 575 kilometers above the ground. Later, the company's lineup is planned to include 36 satellites, which will be able to reach any point on Earth within 10 minutes. These satellites are characterized by the use of large, folding antennas, which allow them to photograph even in challenging weather conditions.
For the Electron rocket to take off from a landing pad in New Zealand, it will be the 42nd launch. It is a relatively small rocket compared to those of SpaceX – it is 18 meters high, 1.2 meters in diameter, weighs 13 tons and can carry 300 kg using liquid oxygen and kerosene fuel reserves. Its landing mechanism is less advanced than its counterparts, and even a little strange – when it completes its mission, it opens a parachute, and a helicopter tries to catch it in the air. However, so far this method has not yet succeeded in real launches, and in the meantime, it simply plummets into the ocean, and a ship is sent to pull it out of the water.
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