Fusion Space is targeting January 20th 2025 at 22:15 GMT for the launch of LunaRock-2 onboard F2RE from Pad 01B at the National Space Center.
This'll be the first flight of today's first stage (B2010.0) and it will be attempting a recovery at LZ-1 for future reuse.
LunaRock-2
LunaRock-2 is building on the lessons learned from our last attempt at returning samples from Luna back in December 2024.
There have been several upgrades to the LunaRock spacecraft design to improve on previous faults and increase scientific gain from the mission. The most notable change is the addition of a third stage which is debuting on this flight to boost the lander and enable us to perform two Luna landings and sample collections.
With this new capability, we can get the data of two missions in one! If the third stage fails to perform, then it will be ditched in orbit where it'll burn up in the atmosphere and LunaRock-2 will perform a single landing instead.
Communications have also been upgraded to allow for video footage of the launch and re-entry of the return capsule. Other improvements are general tweaks, including extended battery life and redundant separation clamps.
LunaRock-2 Mission
LunaRock-2's mission will follow a similar path as its predecessor. The spacecraft will be inserted into a 45° 80km-300km orbit.
The third stage will perform a TLI after performing health checks, which may take several days to complete. Once on path to Luna, the LunaRock-2 spacecraft will do a series of tests of the maneuvering systems which will bring us beautiful views of Droo. The third stage will be separated at this time as well.
LunaRock-2 will then bring itself into orbit of Luna and begin imaging the surface to select two landing sites. Once the desired locations are selected, a de-orbit burn will be performed and the first landing will be streamed on YouTube.
Once on the ground, we'll immediately begin drilling for 5kg of sample material and assess a liftoff T-0. This will only be a short hop that'll move the spacecraft up to 300km from the original landing site and another 5km of samples will be taken.
Once the sampling is done and the capsule is sealed up, the ascent stage will separate and ignite a single solid rocket motor that'll put the return capsule on path for a re-entry that'll put the capsule on path for a splashdown 50km offshore from the National Space Center.
We are extremely excited to undertake a second Luna mission in such a short period of time, but we want to make it clear things may go wrong, and we are prepared for such an event. We hope you enjoy this flight and if any company wants to acquire samples of Luna they can contact Fusion Space.
LunaRock-2 Render
Mission Timeline
T-0 - Ignition
T+0:03 - Liftoff
T+0:58 - Max Q
T+2:16 - Main Engine Cutoff
T+2:27 - Second Stage Start One
T+2:36 - Stage One Boostback
T+2:50 - Fairing Separation
T+3:04 - Stage One Boostback Shutdown
T+5:08 - Stage One Entry Burn
T+5:29 - Stage One Entry Burn Shutdown
T+5:53 - Second Engine Cutoff One
T+7:02 - Stage One Landing Burn
T+7:59 - Stage One Landing at LZ-1
T+8:10 - LunaRock-2 Deployment
LunaRock-2 Payload Integration
cant wait for this