UH Space Flight Lab undeterred by failed rocket launch

Despite the failure of a rail-guided rocket launch on Kauai with a $1.3 million University of Hawaii satellite aboard, officials say there could be more space launches, but the Air Force won’t be paying for them.

UH’s Space Flight Laboratory said it gained valuable experience building and launching the small satellite known as HiakaSat and that other, even smaller satellites are in the works. The lab contends that missions at Barking Sands, Kauai, and elsewhere in the islands could make the state a space launch center for a burgeoning small satellite industry.

The Air Force’s Operationally Responsive Space Office said it is still investigating why the 60-foot Super Strypi rocket broke up shortly after launch Nov. 3 from the Pacific Missile Range Facility. The payload was lost at sea.

The $47 million ORS-4 mission, which included development of the rocket, launchpad and 135-foot rail, was the world’s first rail-guided orbital launch and a test of a cheaper space delivery method for small satellites without the need for a costly and complex guidance system.

The Air Force said one of the goals of the ORS office is to capitalize on existing technologies for adaptation to national security and then transfer those technologies to the commercial sector.

There is no funding for future rail launches, but the ORS office is working “to release as much of the launch rail design data to U.S. ranges to allow for their application as they find useful,” the Air Force said.

Luke Flynn, director of the Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory, said the Navy’s Pacific missile range is willing to at least host a second rail launch and possibly more. UH, a partner in the project, was responsible for payload development and project management of the rail launcher and launchpad.

“Who will do it and who will pay for it (the next launch) are still open questions,” Flynn said.

Funding for the next launch would almost certainly be commercial, and the spaceflight lab has received two commercial inquiries regarding the use of the launcher, he said.

FLYNN noted that the company SpaceX has talked about placing 4,000 satellites in low Earth orbit for Internet access. OneWeb has discussed building up to 900 satellites.

“The interest in Super Strypi and small launchers is from a rapidly growing commercial sector, including SpaceX, Planet Labs, SkyBox Imaging, Black Sky, OneWeb and other Internet/cellphone companies,” Flynn said. “Think about 4,000 satellites from one company needing access to space. How will they get there? Certainly the number of launches and launch sites in the U.S. and abroad will have to grow to meet this demand.”

From Hawaii, physics dictates that it is most advantageous to launch directly east into an equatorial orbit because a rocket can carry more payload if it is launched in the same direction as the spin of the earth, Flynn said. But that will not happen at Barking Sands because of safety concerns.

“We cannot get to an equatorial orbit from PMRF as we would have to fly along the coast of Kauai and over Lihue. That is not going to happen,” Flynn said. “However, there may be other places in the state of Hawaii where we could launch a rocket directly east.”

WITH Super Strypi, “we were launching into a polar orbit to the south and away from the islands,” Flynn said.

Super Strypi can carry about 595 pounds of payload to a 248-mile altitude circular orbit with polar orbit launch, he said. The same rocket can carry about 794 pounds of payload to a 248-mile altitude circular orbit with an equatorial orbit launch.

The Hiaka satellite was paid for by the ORS office; a Hawaii NASA Space Grant; and EPSCoR, or experimental program to stimulate competitive research, UH said. A dozen smaller CubeSats also were part of the Nov. 3 payload.

Flynn said a group of spaceflight lab students is working on a suborbital payload launch in the spring from New Mexico; another suborbital launch involving UH will be conducted in August; and the lab is involved with two orbital satellites that will be launched as part of a NASA CubeSat initiative in 2017.

“HiakaSat went through a rigorous NASA-based testing process that was fully documented in order to be accepted for the ORS-4 mission,” Flynn said. “The fact that HiakaSat was accepted for flight shows that UH has the equipment and expertise to build and test small spacecraft.”