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Rocket Lab wins order for three Photon missions from space manufacturing startup
spacenews.com ^ | August 12, 2021 | Jeff Foust

Posted on 08/13/2021 3:04:38 PM PDT by BenLurkin

The launches are scheduled from the first quarter of 2023 through 2024, with the option for a fourth mission.

Each Photon will serve as a platform for Varda’s “space factories,” hardware the startup is developing to produce a range of products in the microgravity environment of low Earth orbit. The Photons will provide propulsion and station-keeping, as well as attitude control and communications. Varda will develop the 120-kilogram factories, which include a return capsule that will reduce the manufactured products back to Earth at the end of a three-month mission.

Varda raised a $42 million Series A round July 28, led by Khosla Ventures and Caffeinated Capital, and has raised $53 million to date. The company, based in Torrance, California, says its goal is to be the “worldwide leader in commercial microgravity manufacturing.”

Varda, though, has offered few details about its plans. It says it will pursue in-space manufacturing of fiber optic cables, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors, although those products have widely varying requirements. The company did not respond to questions about its plans for the Photon missions, including whether those missions are intended primarily to be technology demonstrations or if they will generate revenue.

Rocket Lab announced Photon in 2019 and has launched two demonstration missions, most recently in March. The first operational Photon mission is scheduled for the fourth quarter for NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) mission. Photon will serve as an upper stage to boost CAPSTONE toward the moon before releasing that satellite, then make a flyby of the moon.

(Excerpt) Read more at spacenews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: rocketlab; spacefactories; varda

1 posted on 08/13/2021 3:04:38 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin
that will reduce the manufactured products back to Earth

I think he meant "that will RETURN"

Doesn't anyone proofread anymore?
2 posted on 08/13/2021 3:07:13 PM PDT by BikerJoe
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To: BenLurkin

Is that a new company started by Biden’s brother? Or one of Hunter’s pals?


3 posted on 08/13/2021 6:06:06 PM PDT by Dogbert41 ("Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6).)
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