Solar sail propulsion mission launched by Rocket Lab

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

Rocket Lab successfully launched its 47th Electron rocket at 10.32am on Wednesday and deployed satellites to orbit for Nasa and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

The mission, launched from Rocket Lab’s Māhia launch complex, was the company’s fifth so far this year.

“This launch was particularly unique for us as we deployed the two satellites to different orbits on the same mission,” a Rocket Lab spokeswoman said.

“The NEONSAT-1 satellite will perform Earth-observation of the Korean Peninsula for KAIST, which will then pair the satellite’s data with artificial intelligence to monitor for natural disasters in the region.

“The second satellite deployed was Nasa’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System, which is a technology demonstration of new materials that use sunlight to propel a spacecraft,” she said.

“Much like a sailboat is powered by wind pushing against a sail, solar sails employ the pressure of sunlight for propulsion.

“This mission plans to test how well new composite booms unfurl the sail from the spacecraft — which is about the size of a toaster — to an area about the size of a small apartment.

“Data from this mission will be used for designing future larger-scale composite solar sail systems for space weather early warning satellites, asteroid and other small body reconnaissance missions, and missions to observe the polar regions of the sun.”

Both satellites were launched into separate orbits, more than 500 kilometres apart from each other.