NASA has selected Rocket Lab to launch its Aspera smallsat mission, which will study gases in the vast regions of space between galaxies.<\/p>\n
Rocket Lab’s Electron<\/a> will launch Aspera, a cubesat<\/a> being developed by the University of Arizona and NASA<\/a>. The shoebox-sized satellite will use an onboard telescope to study the ultraviolet light emitted from gases adrift between galaxies.<\/p>\n The launch is targeted for the first quarter of 2026, from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. The selection of Rocket Lab<\/a> is part of NASA’s $300 million<\/a> Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR<\/a>) launch services contract, and adds to a growing list of science missions which with agency has entrusted the launch company, including PREFIRE<\/a>, TROPICS<\/a> and CAPSTONE<\/a>.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n \u201cAs a long-trusted launch partner for NASA\u2019s most pioneering small satellites, it\u2019s great to be able to continue that support for another innovative science mission like Aspera,” Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Aspera will measure the inflow and outflow of gases between galaxies, called the circumgalactic medium, which scientists believe may contribute to star<\/a> formation and galaxy evolution. The mission is part of NASA’s Pioneers Program, in the space agency’s Astrophysics Division, which provides funding to lower-cost astrophysics missions.<\/p>\n “We have a good understanding of how much gas there must be in galaxies to explain how many stars we see, but we’ve searched far and wide and still cannot find most of it,” Aspera Principal Investigator Carlos Vargas said in a February update<\/a> from the University of Arizona about the mission’s manufacturing process.<\/p>\n