On April 23, 2024, Exolaunch successfully deployed NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) onboard Rocket Lab’s “Beginning of the Swarm” mission. Liftoff occurred at 1000 NZT / 2200 UTC from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. With this launch, Exolaunch’s flight heritage has increased to 28 missions.

With a 12U nanosatellite bus built by Kongsberg NanoAvionics, NASA’s ACS3 mission is a tech demo to test new structures for solar sail propulsion systems, which rely on sunlight for propulsion. The satellite was flown via an EXOpod deployer.

• Mission

  “Beginning of the Swarm”

• Launch vehicle

  Electron

• 1 satellites

  Launched via Exolaunch

• Customers

  2 global customers (NASA & Kongsberg NanoAvionics)

• Launch site

  Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 - Pad B Mahia, New Zealand

• Launch period

  April 2024