Rocket Lab successfully launches Don’t Stop Me Now satellite delivery mission
Electron rocket completes 12th launch powered by 3D printed Rutherford engine
Rocket Lab, one of the space industry’s unicorn startups, successfully launched its Electron rocket to deliver a payload of satellites to orbit in the Don’t Stop Me Now mission. Rocket Lab is known for its massive use of additive manufacturing in the production of the Electron rocket’s propulsion system, the Rutherford Engine. The rocket launched, as scheduled, on June 13th, from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand.
Named to commemorate a recently passed away member of the Rocket Lab’s Board (who was an avid Queens fan), Don’t Stop Me Now is a rideshare mission that launched several small satellites, including the ANDESITE (Ad-Hoc Network Demonstration for Extended Satellite-Based Inquiry and Other Team Endeavors) satellite created by electrical and mechanical engineering students and professors at Boston University.
The mission also carried three payloads designed, built and operated by the NRO. The mission was procured under the agency’s Rapid Acquisition of a Small Rocket (RASR) contract vehicle. RASR allows the NRO to explore new launch opportunities that provide a streamlined, commercial approach for getting small satellites into space, as well as provide those working in the small satellite community with timely and cost-effective access to space. This mission followed Rocket Lab’s first dedicated mission for the NRO, Birds of a Feather, which was launched on 31 January 2020 NZT from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1.
The ANDESITE and NRO payloads were joined on the mission by the M2 Pathfinder satellite, a collaboration between the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Canberra Space and the Australian Government. The M2 Pathfinder will test communications architecture and other technologies that will assist in informing the future space capabilities of Australia. The satellite will demonstrate the ability of an onboard software-based radio to operate and reconfigure while in orbit.