Rocket Lab postpones launch of mission to search for traces of life on Venus

Rocket Lab plans to send a spacecraft to Venus to search for life on the second planet from the Sun. However, the company has already run into problems and has been forced to postpone the launch of the mission.

Here's What We Know

Rocket Lab wants to fund the mission itself. The project involves sending the Photon spacecraft to Venus, which will search for organic molecules at an altitude of about 50 km from the surface. The device is only 40 cm in diameter. The probe will be sent into space by an Electron rocket. The flight to the neighbouring planet will take six months.

The company had planned to begin the mission last month. A new date has not yet been officially announced. But it is worth recalling that there was information last summer that a backup launch window would be available in January 2025.

Venus attracted attention a few years ago when a scientific paper appeared that the atmosphere of the second planet from the Sun contained phosphine. This gas is produced by living organisms on Earth. Rocket Lab decided to try their luck, although phosphine may have a different origin.

Source: Engadget