Sunday, May 5 - 2:00am EDT
Onenui Station, New Zealand
A Rocket Lab Electron rocket will launch three small satellites on a mission for the U.S. Air Force’s designated STP-27RD.
Electron rocket breakdown. Image credit: Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab’s heaviest payload to date
The Electron rocket will launch three separate research and development experiments — weighing nearly 400 pounds total — the rocket’s heaviest payload yet.
Space Plug and Play Architecture Research CubeSat-1
(SPARC-1)
A joint Swedish-United States experiment from the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate, designed to investigate new technologies in avionics miniaturization.
The Falcon Orbital Debris Experiment
(Falcon ODE)
Falcon ODE, from the U.S. Air Force Academy, will study technologies required to track space debris from ground stations on Earth.
Harbinger
The largest satellite launching on this mission is the Harbinger research payload from York Space Systems. Harbinger will test the company’s smallsat satellite platform for use by the U.S. Military.
