Rocket Lab signs deal to launch NASA’s Starling mission

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Two days after launching a rocket mission from Mahia for NASA, Rocket Lab has announced another mission for the United States space agency.

Rocket Lab has signed a deal to launch NASA’s Starling mission, a multi-CubeSat mission to test and demonstrate autonomous swarm technologies, as well as automated space traffic management for groups of spacecraft in low-Earth orbit.

“Electron has been delivering rapid and reliable access to orbit for NASA since 2018 and we’re delighted to continue that strong heritage with the Starling mission, ”Rocket Lab founder and chief executive Peter Beck said.

The four Starling small satellites have been manifested on an Electron commercial rideshare mission scheduled for lift-off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia in the third quarter of this year.

The mission is designed to test technologies to enable future “swarm” missions. Spacecraft swarms refer to multiple spacecraft autonomously coordinating their activities to achieve certain goals. Starling will explore technologies for in-space network communications, onboard relative navigation between spacecraft, autonomous manoeuvre planning and execution, and distributed science autonomy.

“Electron has been delivering rapid and reliable access to orbit for NASA since 2018 and we’re delighted to continue that strong heritage with the Starling mission,” Mr Beck.

“Starling has the potential to revolutionise the way science is done in orbit and we’re immensely proud to make that possible.”

Starling joins a growing list of NASA missions launched by Rocket Lab since 2018, including the ELaNa-19 educational CubeSat programme, the CAPSTONE mission to the Moon, and two dedicated Electron launches for the NASA TROPICS mission that launched from Mahia this week.