spaceflightnow.com• Jun 14, 2022• 1 min read
Momentus orbital transfer vehicle suffers power problem after launchThe first test flight of a commercial orbital transfer vehicle from Momentus is suffering from a problem with its solar panels after launching last month on a SpaceX rocket, and the company said Monday that its confidence in completing the spacecraft’s demonstrations has “substantially declined.” The Vigoride 3 space tug was one of dozens of small satellites launched on SpaceX’s Transporter 5 rideshare mission May 25. The spacecraft rode a Falcon 9 rocket into a polar orbit from Cape Canaveral, beginning a variety of communications, Earth observation, tech demo, and research missions. Momentus intended to test the Vigoride spacecraft’s novel water-based propulsion system and deploy nine small customer-owned satellites from the transfer vehicle, but power and communications faults are preventing the mission from completing its objectives, the company said Monday. “We are continuing efforts to address the anomalies, but our level of confidence that we will be able to deploy additional cu
IMAGE
