Rocket Lab Venus mission

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With more details now released this really deserves its own thread.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1559658817167577088

View: https://twitter.com/rocketlab/status/1559658817167577088

We're sending our Photon spacecraft to Venus in search of life ️

Supported by a science team at @MIT, this is the 1st private mission to Venus & 1st opportunity to probe the Venusian clouds in nearly 4 decades.

Full mission details in this new paper: https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/9/8/445/htm

 

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The first private mission to Venus will have just five minutes to hunt for life
Launching as soon as next year, Rocket Lab’s low-cost mission will be brief, but it could transform the search for alien biology.

By Jonathan O'Callaghan
August 29, 2022

As the covid pandemic raged in late 2020, all eyes turned briefly from our troubled planet to our planetary neighbor Venus. Astronomers had made a startling detection in its cloud tops: a gas called phosphine that on Earth is created through biological processes. Speculation ran wild as scientists struggled to understand what they were seeing.

Now, a mission due to be launched next year could finally begin to answer the question that has excited astronomers ever since: Could microbial life be belching out the gas?

The first private mission to Venus will have just five minutes to hunt for life

Launching as soon as next year, Rocket Lab’s low-cost mission will be brief, but it could transform the search for alien biology.

www.technologyreview.com

 

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Rocket Lab will self-fund a mission to search for life in the clouds of Venus
"Breakthrough science is possible."

by Eric Berger - Aug 17, 2022 10:09pm JST

Never let it be said that Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck lacks a flamboyant streak.

Although his Electron launch vehicle is one of the smallest orbital rockets in the world, Beck gleans every bit of performance from the booster he can.

Rocket Lab will self-fund a mission to search for life in the clouds of Venus

"Breakthrough science is possible."

arstechnica.com

 

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This mission has a NET May 2023 launch date from New Zealand.

 

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Rocket Lab’s Venus mission now set for launch in January 2025.

Confirmed for launch in January 2025 now.