Veery 0.2 · Mission complete · Deorbited Apr 1, 2024
Veery “Orion”
An orbital experiment in a PocketQube format. Deployment was delayed and the team never established contact.
- Flight version
- 0.2
- Spacecraft design
- 1p Pocketqube
- Launch
- May 25, 2022
- Iterations
- 6
Mission
Orion was planned for release shortly after launch, but the Vigoride transfer vehicle had a radio malfunction that prevented Momentus from releasing Orion. Two months later, Momentus resolved their issue and released Orion, but Orion was never heard from.
Shortly before launch, we discovered that a failure to deploy Orion's antennas and tracking panels would block Iridium communications. We were unable to resolve this contingency before delivery to the launch provider. We suspect an extended stay in the transfer vehicle caused Orion's antenna deployment mechanism to cold weld, resulting in failure to make contact.
- Instantaneous power
- 1.5 W
- Data rate
- 1 kbps