Skip to main content
RKLBFYI
That's a Funny Looking Cactus mission patch
Mission Status

That's a Funny Looking Cactus

Last Updated: 38 minutes ago
SUCCESS
Orbit Achieved
Unknown
Vehicle
Electron
Launch Site
LC-1A
Orbit
Low Earth Orbit
Profile
Dedicated Rideshare
Sunday, May 5, 2019 06:00 AM UTC Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

Mission State

Schedule
Date and time on file

This mission currently has a dated launch window in the tracker.

Coverage
Official livestream linked

The primary watch link points to an official Rocket Lab source.

Name Origin

AI

A geographic nod to the DoD Space Test Program, based in New Mexico — a desert state famous for cacti. Rocket Lab humorously imagined someone spotting the rocket hardware and mistaking it for a cactus.

"That's a Funny Looking Cactus"

Mission Overview

The mission has been procured by the DoD Space Test Program in partnership with Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) as part of its Rapid Agile Launch Initiative .The payload consists of three satellites, SPARC-1, Falcon ODE and Harbinger, that will deployed in a precise sequence. The Space Plug and Play Architecture Research CubeSat-1 (SPARC-1) mission, sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate (AFRL/RV), is a joint Swedish-United States experiment to explore technology developments in avionics miniaturization, software defined radio systems, and space situational awareness (SSA). The Falcon Orbital Debris Experiment (Falcon ODE), sponsored by the United States Air Force Academy, will evaluate ground-based tracking of space objects. Harbinger, a commercial small satellite built by York Space Systems and sponsored by the U.S Army, will demonstrate the ability of an experimental commercial system to meet DoD space capability requirements.

Technical Details

Vehicle
Electron
Rocket Lab launch vehicle
Launch Site
Launch Complex 1A
LC-1A · Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand
Target Orbit
Low Earth Orbit
Planned deployment regime
Mission Profile
Dedicated Rideshare
Mission architecture
Payload Mass
180 kg
Kiwi bird icon 72 kiwis
Customer
Unknown
Mission customer
Search
Search across missions, customers, news, and SEC filings