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Orbital Reflector [Nevada Museum of Art]
Orbital Reflector is a 3U CubeSat which deploys a large reflective sculpture.
Orbital Reflector is a project by the Nevada Museum of Art and artist Trevor Paglen to put a reflective, nonfunctional satellite into low Earth orbit. Orbital Reflector is a 30 m sculpture constructed of a lightweight material similar to Mylar. It is housed in a small box-like infrastructure known as a CubeSat and launched into space aboard a rocket. Once in low Earth orbit at a distance of about 575 kilometers from Earth, the CubeSat opens and releases the sculpture, which self-inflates like a balloon. Sunlight reflects onto the sculpture making it visible from Earth with the naked eye like a slowly moving artificial star as bright as a star in the Big Dipper.
Global Western is an aerospace firm working with Trevor Paglen and the Nevada Museum of Art to design and manufacture Orbital Reflector. The satellite was launched on Spaceflight Industry's SSO-A multi-satellite launch on a Falcon-9 v1.2 (Block 5) rocket.
| Nation: | USA |
|---|---|
| Type / Application: | Art |
| Operator: | Nevada Museum of Art, OR Productions |
| Contractors: | Global Western |
| Equipment: | Deployable reflective structure |
| Configuration: | CubeSat (3U) |
| Propulsion: | None |
| Power: | 4 deployable fixed solar arrays, batteries |
| Lifetime: | |
| Mass: | 4 kg |
| Orbit: |
| Satellite | COSPAR | Date | LS | Launch Vehicle | Remarks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orbital Reflector (ORS 1) | 2018-099P ? | 03.12.2018 | Va SLC-4E | Falcon-9 v1.2 (Block 5) | with SkySat 14, 15, Eu:CROPIS, STPSat 5, FalconSat 6, NEXTSat 1, KazSTSAT, eXCITe, SeeMe, ICEYE X2, BlackSky Global 2, ESEO, Hawk A, B, C, Capella 1, AISTECHSAT 2, CSIM-FD, Hiber 2, ITASAT 1, Landmapper-BC 4, ORS 7A, 7B, Al-Farabi 2, Astrocast 0.1, Audacy 0, BRIO, Centauri 1, Eaglet 1, Enoch, Flock-3s 1, 2, 3, K2SAT, KazSciSat 1, MinXSS 2, RAAF M1, SeaHawk 1, SNUSAT 2, THEA, VESTA, PW-Sat 2, SNUGLITE, VisionCube, RANGE A, B, Elysium-Star 2, ExseedSat 1, Fox 1C, Irvine 02, JY1-Sat, KNACKSAT, MOVE 2, SpaceBEE 5, 6, 7, Suomi-100, WeissSat 1, Sirion Pathfinder 2, OrbWeaver 1, 2, SPAWAR-CAL O, OR, R |
Launch Sites:
- Va = Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, USA
References:
- Nevada Museum of Art: Orbital Reflector Website
