“As part of that, as normally happens in I&T, you find errors or bugs that needed to be fixed, and that’s what we did,” he said. It took more than a year to develop the test procedures and scripts needed to ensure the software met range safety requirements.īy early 2022, NAFTU was ready for independent certification testing. Space Force and Federal Aviation Administration to fix the software and go through a certification process, he said. ![]() ![]() In the fall of 2020, NASA established a “cross-agency” team that included the U.S. During final checks of the software, engineers discovered numerous errors in the code. 14 online briefing, David Pierce, director of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, said the final safety certification of what’s called the NASA Autonomous Flight Termination Unit (NAFTU) was originally scheduled in time to support a mid-2020 first launch from LC-2. However, delays in development by NASA of a new autonomous flight termination system (AFTS) required for Electron launches from Wallops delayed that first flight by more than two years.Īt a Dec. At that time, it expected to perform the first launch there in the second quarter of 2020 for the Defense Department’s Space Test Program. The scheduled launch comes three years after Rocket Lab declared Launch Complex 2 complete. HawkEye 360 signed a contract in April for three Electron launches, including the first Electron launch from Wallops. The mission will place into orbit three satellites for HawkEye 360, which operates a constellation of spacecraft that perform radio-frequency surveillance. There is an 85% chance of favorable weather for the launch that day as well as on a backup day Dec. The launch, called “Virginia is for Launch Lovers” by the company, is scheduled from the company’s Launch Complex (LC) 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops during a two-hour window that opens at 6 p.m. WASHINGTON - After more than two years of delays, NASA and Rocket Lab are finally ready to conduct the first Electron launch from Wallops Island in Virginia on Dec.
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