Rocket Lab postpones Venus atmospheric investigation launch
Rocket Lab revealed plans last year to conduct an extensive search for organic molecules in the atmosphere of Venus by launching a small probe. The launch was scheduled for May 2023, but according to recent reports from TechCrunch, it is no longer imminent. The company has not disclosed a new launch date, but a research paper published in July 2022 suggests that a backup launch window is available in January 2025.
News of the mission flew under the radar, as it were, but rather ambitious. Rocket Lab plans to use the Electron Booster and Photon spacecraft to send a small probe into the cloud layer of Venus at an altitude of 30 to 37 miles, where temperatures are similar to Earth’s. (Thanks to the planet’s greenhouse effect, surface temperatures are over 900 degrees Fahrenheit and more than 75 percent of Earth’s atmosphere is compressed.)
There, a small probe with a diameter of 40 cm looks for organic molecules or other evidence that the atmosphere could support life. Venus was in the news in 2020 when scientists claimed to have detected signs of phosphine, a chemical normally produced by living organisms. Although controversial, the findings have sparked renewed interest in Venus’ atmosphere as a potential source of life, and that’s where Rocket Lab’s mission is focused.
At the same time, it’s a way for the company to showcase its photon spacecraft, which are designed to go beyond Earth’s orbit to the Moon and Mars. Last year, Rocket Lab successfully launched a photon on NASA’s CAPSTONE mission, designed to verify the orbital stability of the planned Lunar Gateway space station. The satellite spent nearly six months in orbit, flying within 1,000 miles of the moon’s north pole in what is known as a nearly rectilinear halo orbit.
