Rocket Lab Will Soon Use Photon To Put Factories In Low Earth Orbit
Low Earth orbit is an extremely unique environment with a long list of benefits if properly utilized. One of the biggest and most obvious is the lack of gravity. Here, new opportunities present themselves including space manufacturing, science, 3D bioprinting, and so much more. However, it is by no means easy to access, manufacture, and return the product back to Earth from space.
Not long from now, Rocket Lab is providing Varda Space Industries with multiple Photon spacecraft to help with the company’s mission. Specifically, Rocket Lab will produce four Photon spacecraft for in-space manufacturing company Varda Space Industries that will integrate with Varda’s space factories, enabling high-value products to be manufactured in zero-gravity and returned to Earth in a re-entry capsule.
Recently we have seen Photon continue to prove itself as an extremely valuable and impressive spacecraft. Others within the space industry have recognized this as well and are working with Rocket Lab to get access to Photon for a variety of missions. Here I will go more in-depth into the upcoming launch with Photon, how exactly it works, what the future holds, and more.
Upcoming Mission
Rocket Lab seems to almost always be working toward a new and ambitious launch or spacecraft application. This upcoming mission is a great example with the use of not one, but multiple Photon spacecraft. Just a few months ago Rocket Lab tweeted saying, “In-space manufacturing? We’ve got just the spacecraft for that. After ordering 3 Photons last year, @VardaSpace has just procured a fourth Photon to support the manufacture of high-value products in space.” Specifically, back in late 2021, Rocket Lab announced it had signed a deal with Varda Space Industries to produce three Photon spacecraft that will integrate with their space factories, and support the manufacturing process.
Varda’s space-manufactured products are targeted at high-value markets such as fiber optic cables, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors — all of which have higher performance when produced in zero-gravity. In the case of these missions, after launch, Rocket Lab’s Photon will position the spacecraft in an operational orbit and provide station keeping. Photon will support Varda’s 120 kg manufacturing and re-entry modules with power, data, and attitude control. All three Photon spacecraft will also incorporate Rocket Lab-designed and built spacecraft components, including radios, reaction wheels and star trackers. Rocket Lab’s Photon will perform multiple burns with the 3D-printed Curie engine, acting as a highly capable propulsion system to place Varda’s re-entry capsule on a return trajectory to Earth.
Traditionally, almost all in-space manufacturing research has been carried out on the International Space Station. This research has demonstrated that innovative materials and products can be created in the consistent microgravity environment of low-Earth orbit, an environment that can’t be replicated on Earth. Until now, manufacturing in orbit has been impossible to scale due to cost. Building a space factory with a proven, Photon spacecraft — one that doesn’t require human tending in orbit — will allow Varda to make building products in space at scale a reality for the first time. At the time of the announcement, CEO of Rocket Lab, Peter Beck said, “The Varda team is undertaking ground-breaking work that really opens up new possibilities and markets for in-space manufacturing and we couldn’t be more excited to make their mission possible with Photon. Photon enables our customers to unlock the full potential of space. It removes a massive barrier to the growing small satellite market by delivering our customers a versatile and configurable spacecraft platform that they don’t need to build themselves. Our customers get to orbit faster and can focus purely on their mission while there, rather than worrying about developing and operating a spacecraft.”
As partially mentioned prior, the company originally made an agreement for three Photon spacecraft but recently added a fourth. In terms of the launch date, the first Varda Photon is planned for delivery in Q1 2023, with the second to follow up later in the year and a third in 2024. Each mission has a nominal three-month duration from launch to landing. It’s important to point out that Electron will not be launching these payloads but instead different launch vehicles. For example, the first launch is expected to happen via a SpaceX Falcon 9. When Varda announced the addition of a fourth Photon spacecraft, Peter Beck pointed out, “Our growing space systems capabilities offer a compelling balance of performance, heritage, schedule reliability, and cost, ultimately making innovative missions like Varda’s in-space factories possible with speed and efficiency. Photon is bringing new capabilities to market quickly, meeting the growing customer demand for advanced, configurable satellite technology. We’re very pleased to continue strengthening the partnership with Varda and look forward to delivering hardware early next year.”
Varda & Photon Overview
Now that we know more about the agreement and upcoming missions, we can take a closer look at the Photon spacecraft and how exactly Varda is trying to manufacture in space. The company highlights that decades of research have shown the advantage of space-produced products, and recent advances have made getting to orbit affordable. Varda’s mission is to expand the economic bounds of humankind, taking advantage of the unique environment of space to realize benefits on Earth. The process starts with the Varda payload and Rocket Lab Photon spacecraft launched on top of a commercial launch vehicle. Once in orbit, the manufacturing facility begins its operations. Once complete, Varda’s payload capsule separates from Photon and the manufacturing facility. It then reenters Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic speeds of greater than Mach 25, or 19,000 mph. However, shaped like a small human rated capsule, it uses a heat shield and parachute to survive the process and land safely back on Earth, if everything goes according to plan.
Varda Space Industries was founded in 2020 with the goal of manufacturing products in space to benefit life on Earth. They imagined a world where space could be leveraged not only for storytelling and awe, but for its economic benefits. Varda was created as a platform for in-space manufacturing, with a range of real-life, on-Earth use cases. Today, they are accelerating innovation in space through their microgravity manufacturing platform, with applications including pharmaceuticals, hypersonic testing, and fiber optics. All of which we will see worked on not long from now with the help of Photon.
Photon is based on the heritage Electron launch vehicle Kick Stage, leveraging numerous components that have significant flight heritage, including the Curie engine, an in-house designed and developed in space propulsion system. While Photon normally flies as the upper stage of Electron, eliminating the parasitic mass of deployed spacecraft and enabling full utilization of the fairing, in this case, it won’t. Thankfully, Photon can also fly on other launch vehicles, in particular using ESPA ports as a secondary payload. Varda is confident that Photon will provide the perfect fit for in space manfucuturing and supporting the mission process. The CEO of Varda highlighted, “We are excited to work with Rocket Lab. Photon is a great fit for our mission and their team has displayed significant engineering rigor. Working with them will allow us to deliver on our aggressive schedule and tight budget. We are one step closer to delivering valuable materials to our clients here on Earth.”
The Varda contract joins a growing list of Photon missions, including the recently completed CAPSTONE lunar mission in support of NASA’s Artemis program and a contract to design twin Photon spacecraft in support of a NASA Mars mission, just to name a few. Rocket Lab currently operates two existing Photon spacecraft on orbit. Launched in 2020 and 2021 respectively, the Photon First Light and Photon Pathstone spacecraft demonstrated Rocket Lab’s end-to-end mission service, encompassing satellite design and build, launch on Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle, and on-orbit operations. In addition, at the time of the fourth Photon announcement, Varda’s CEO said, “Rocket Lab’s Photon bus is a great compliment to Varda’s in-space manufacturing and hypersonic re-entry logistics service. Rocket Lab shares Varda’s vision to build an in-space economy to improve life on Earth and beyond. We look forward to working with Peter and the team at Rocket Lab as we grow our businesses and work to expand the bounds of humankind.” It’s clear that everyone involved is excited about the collaboration and upcoming missions.
Conclusion
Rocket Lab continues to work on a host of unique and ambitious missions of the future. Not long from now, we can expect to watch the first launch using a Photon spacecraft to help support Varda Space Industries in space manufacturing process. The first of four missions and likely even more if successful. We will have to wait and see how it progresses and the impact it has on the space industry.