A Mission from Launch to Laboratory
How does a microgravity manufacturing mission work, step by step, and where do time and cost go?
Chapter summary
a free-flyer mission passes through eight stages: integration, launch on a rideshare, commissioning, processing, waiting for a re-entry window, de-orbit, landing and recovery, and handover to the customer's laboratory.
Key takeaways
- 1
Processing itself may take days or weeks; the whole cycle from payload handover to product in hand takes months.
- 2
On Setcoin's reference mission, launch is about a quarter of the cost, the spacecraft and capsule about half, and operations and recovery the rest.
- 3
Delays at re-entry licensing or landing-site approval, as on Varda's first mission, can add months.
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