Photon Satellite Bus Platform

Rocket Lab’s Photon is a configurable satellite bus platform designed for LEO, deep space, and interplanetary missions — an evolution of Electron’s Kick Stage. Photon uses a Curie bipropellant engine (produces 120 N of thrust on high-power Photon variants using liquid oxygen and RP-1) for extended orbit maneuvers. Photon has been used as an interplanetary cruise stage: on June 28, 2022, Rocket Lab launched NASA’s CAPSTONE mission to lunar orbit using a Photon spacecraft that performed 7 maneuvers over 6 days to place the 25 kg CubeSat into a near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) around the Moon — the same lunar Gateway orbit. Rocket Lab has also proposed sending a privately-funded Photon to Venus in 2023 to deploy an atmospheric probe. Photon provides 3-axis stabilization, onboard propulsion, power, communication, and payload interfaces. In LEO configuration, Photon is used as a turnkey satellite (Rocket Lab designs and operates the spacecraft) or as a hosted payload platform. The spacecraft is 5 kg (LEO) to over 100 kg (interplanetary) depending on configuration.