Photon Spacecraft Bus
Description
Photon is Rocket Lab's own spacecraft bus, integrated with the Electron launch vehicle's Kick Stage to provide a complete orbital delivery and deep-space capable spacecraft solution. The Photon platform offers propulsion, power, attitude control, communications, and command/data handling systems. It comes in two variants: Earth Photon (LEO operations) and High-Energy Photon (for interplanetary or high-energy orbits). The High-Energy Photon variant was used for the CAPSTONE mission (2022) that delivered NASA's CAPSTONE CubeSat to a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) around the Moon, demonstrating Photon's deep-space capability. Photon is also used for the Rocket Lab Mission to Venus (planned for 2025), which would deploy a small atmospheric entry probe.