Rocket Lab currently operates two Photon spacecraft on orbit named Photon First Light and Photon Pathstone, launched in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
Photon Pathstone is equipped with new power management, thermal control, and attitude control subsystems intended for use on the CAPSTONE mission to the Moon later in 2021.
Photon Pathstone is the second Photon spacecraft deployed to orbit, following Photon First Light which launched in August 2020.
The mission tested Rocket Lab’s Photon satellite bus variant called Photon Pathstone, which is based on the kick stage.
Photon Pathstone is the second test of Photon following the First Light mission launched in August 2020.
Photon Pathstone is the second Photon spacecraft to be deployed to orbit following the launch of Photon First Light in August 2020.
Photon Pathstone will remain in orbit after payload deployment to build flight heritage across the spacecraft’s subsystems ahead of Rocket Lab’s private mission to Venus in 2023.
Photon Pathstone will operate as a Kick Stage space tug to circularize and deploy six customer payloads to precise orbits.