Rocket Lab’s Upcoming Orbital Debris Missions
As the space industry continues to expand and record numbers of satellites are launched, the threat of space debris also grows. Whether it’s outdated satellites, collisions, weapon tests, etc. space debris could become a significant problem if not properly dealt with. Thankfully, Rocket Lab in combination with a host of different companies are working on solutions.
Just recently for example in June, Rocket Lab signed a dedicated launch deal with Spire Global to deliver its four satellites to low Earth orbit for its customer NorthStar. These satellites will monitor all near-Earth orbits from space, providing invaluable information on satellite and debris tracking.
This comes in addition to a contract to launch the Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan (ADRAS-J) satellite. A system designed to rendezvous, capture, and bring back space debris from orbit. Here I will go more in-depth into these upcoming missions, why they are so important, what to expect in the coming weeks, and more.
Space Debris
To put the orbital debris problem in perspective, United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno, recently wrote about this issue and how to solve it. He was quoted saying, “Orbital debris has become something that we must urgently deal with. It is not tomorrow’s problem. It is today’s issue. And LEO is becoming more crowded every week. In fact, we have more than doubled the objects in orbit since 2019, with many more on the way” he said. This helps put in perspective the current issue and what the future may hold.
On the bright side, work is being done to solve it. On June 22nd, Rocket Lab announced that it has signed a dedicated launch deal with Spire Global to deliver its first four Space Situational Awareness (SSA) satellites to low Earth orbit. The dedicated mission on Electron will deploy the satellites to a 530km circular orbit from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand during a launch window that opens in September 2023. To meet NorthStar’s program requirements, Spire has selected Rocket Lab to launch the satellites on an accelerated timeline within five months of contract signing. Spire has previously launched with Rocket Lab on Electron’s first two commercial missions, Still Testing and Its Business Time, in 2018.
NorthStar, headquartered in Montreal, Canada, is the first commercial SSA service provider to actively scan and monitor space from space. NorthStar´s block of four satellites, built and operated by Spire, will be the first to simultaneously monitor all near-Earth orbits from space, delivering a radically enhanced level of SSA services to the global satellite community, with timely and precise information for space object detection, tracking, orbit determination, collision avoidance, navigation, and proximity alerts.
Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Peter Beck, said: “As with all satellite constellations, the precise placement of the first satellites for a particular mission is critical to the constellation’s future success. With Electron’s agility, reliability, and proven precision to place satellites exactly where they need to go, dedicated missions like this one for Spire and NorthStar are our bread and butter. Space debris is a global issue and the responsibility of all space users, so it’s great to be supporting a mission with a focus on making Earth’s orbit safer for everyone.”
This mission was originally manifested to launch with a now defunct launch provider but has been added to Rocket Lab’s 2023 launch manifest to provide an expedited launch. Stewart Bain, CEO of NorthStar said: “With the untimely setback in launch services, maintaining NorthStar’s plan to launch this year had presented an exceptional challenge. But we are confident that we have found an excellent, proven launch specialist in Rocket Lab. We recognize the highly effective effort from both Spire Global and Rocket Lab to preserve our plans to make a meaningful contribution to the safety and sustainability of space by launching our unique services this fall” he said.
In relation to orbital debris, Tory Bruno also pointed out in a statement that “Orbital debris is really just pollution. Plain and simple. We need to treat it that way and employ similar successful tools that we have used here on Earth to clean up our rivers, forests, and air quality. And we should stimulate an economic environment that harnesses the power of innovation and capitalism to solve it permanently. This is our path to a sustainable future in space.”
Capturing Debris
While tracking and monitoring orbit provides a host of benefits, actually removing the debris is a completely new challenge. However, in late 2021, Rocket Lab signed a dedicated launch contract with Astroscale Japan, a subsidiary of Astroscale Holdings, a market leader in satellite servicing and long-term orbital sustainability. Scheduled for lift-off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in 2023, the Electron rocket will launch the Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan (ADRAS-J) satellite, which has been selected by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for Phase I of its Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration Project (CRD2), one of the world’s first technology demonstrations of removing large-scale debris from orbit.
Once deployed to a precise orbit by Electron’s Kick Stage, the satellite is designed to rendezvous with a piece of orbital debris, a long abandoned upper stage rocket body. It aims to demonstrate proximity operations and obtain images of the rocket body, delivering observational data to better understand the debris environment. A planned second phase of the mission, which has yet to be competed, intends to demonstrate the de-orbit of the debris.
“The ability to actively remove satellites and debris from orbit at the end of their operational life will likely play a key role in ensuring a sustainable space environment for the future, so we’re delighted to enable Astroscale to demonstrate new and innovative solutions in this field,” said Peter Beck. “Rendezvousing with a piece of debris on orbit, travelling at around 27,000 km per hour, is a highly complex task that requires absolute precision when it comes to orbital deployment. Electron’s Kick Stage has demonstrated this precision across 18 missions, providing in-space transportation to place our customers’ satellites exactly where they need to go.”
The Kick Stage is designed to deliver small satellites to precise and unique orbits, whether flying as dedicated or rideshare on Electron. The Kick Stage’s propulsion system consists of Rocket Lab’s in-house designed and built Curie engine, six low minimum impulse bit cold gas Reaction Control System thrusters, tank pressurization system, and high propellant mass fraction tanks which can be scaled to meet mission-specific needs. Curie is an additively manufactured, pressure-fed engine with flight heritage across more than a dozen orbital missions. It is a storable, re-startable, bipropellant liquid propellant engine integrated with lightweight composite propellant tanks and valves into a single compact module. Curie enables on orbit maneuvering and positioning, plane changes, and deorbit burns.
In a statement, the company said, “As the small satellite industry experiences rapid growth, Rocket Lab is determined to be part of the solution for sustainability and the reduction of orbital debris in space. Traditional methods of deploying satellites can leave large rocket stages in orbit, contributing to the global issue of space debris. The Kick Stage has been designed with the capability to deorbit itself on an accelerated time scale, well before the 25 year deorbit guidelines stipulated by NASA. By performing a deorbit burn with the Curie engine, Rocket Lab can lower the Kick Stage’s perigee to increase aerodynamic drag on the spacecraft and cause it to deorbit within months or single digit years, as required.
The Kick Stage has also functioned as a platform for hosted payloads, as demonstrated during Rocket Lab’s third mission, ‘It’s Business Time,’ which launched in November 2018. Following payload deployment of several CubeSats, a drag sail technology demonstrator remained integrated on the Kick Stage to test new materials and technologies designed to enable faster deorbiting of spacecraft once they reach end of life. These unique features help facilitate a host of missions and especially satellites that need a very precise launch. Something both these upcoming missions will benefit from in the future.
“Reliable and commercially viable launch vehicles like Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket enable frequent and flexible access to space, allowing us to advance our on-orbit services which are fundamental to the growth of the space infrastructure and economy,” said the Founder and CEO of Astroscale. “Rocket Lab and Astroscale have become leaders in our respective markets and I am thrilled to collaborate on ADRAS-J, a ground breaking mission that will shape the technologies and policies needed to drive space sustainability forward” he said.
Conclusion
Rocket Lab is working with a few different companies to help tackle the issue of orbital debris. The two missions will work to track and remove large pieces of orbital debris. We will have to wait and see how it progresses and the impact it has on the space industry.