NASA is teaming up with Eta Space of Rockledge, Florida, for an in-orbit technology demonstration that aims to solve one of space travel's most annoying problems: running out of gas. The Liquid Oxygen Flight Demonstration, or LOXSAT, will test cryogenic fluid management technologies needed to create in-space propellant depots - essentially gas stations in space - that could support long-term exploration.
Over a nine-month mission, LOXSAT will demonstrate 11 cryogenic fluid management technologies. Eta Space built LOXSAT under NASA's Tipping Point opportunity, with Rocket Lab providing spacecraft and launch services to deliver it to low Earth orbit. The LOXSAT payload has been integrated with a Rocket Lab Photon satellite bus and will launch aboard the company's Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula no earlier than July 17.
The technologies LOXSAT will test are designed to address the core challenges of using cryogenic, or super-cold, propellants in microgravity, including reducing boiloff, transferring propellant, maintaining tank pressure, and gauging propellant levels. Data from these tests will help develop future in-space propellant depots that could refuel spacecraft as they journey to the Moon, Mars, or other deep space destinations.
NASA's LOXSAT team includes members from the Cryogenic Fluid Management Portfolio Project at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, and Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The cryogenic portfolio is part of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate and includes more than 20 individual technology development activities.