Nichols Martin
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has selected Rocket Lab to launch a satellite as part of a program to demonstrate radio communications in small space vehicles through the use of a reflect array antenna technology.
nn
DARPA is scheduled to launch its Radio Frequency Risk Reduction Deployment Demonstration mission with the goal to space-qualify an antenna prototype based on a very thin Kapton membrane and designed to expand up to 2.25 meters in diameter once it reaches low-Earth orbit., Rocket Lab said Tuesday.
The company’s Electron satellite, which weighs 330.7 pounds, will lift off at a launch complex located on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand to support the R3D2 mission. Electron is equipped with a kick stage that will deploy the R3D2 payload to a circular orbit and a second stage that will be subject to an atmospheric drag while in a highly elliptical orbit.
Rocket Lab noted the mission could support efforts to verify emerging concepts of a sensor and data transport layer that may help lay the groundwork for a space internet platform.
