Prometheus-2

Prometheus Block 2 [LANL]

Prometheus is series of 1.5U CubeSats for technology development and demonstration. It was developed by the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) with the dual objective of evaluating new low-cost development and operations methodologies while also assessing the operational utility that can be provided with CubeSat technology. It was DoD funded.

The Prometheus system consists of CubeSats along with supporting ground and field segment equipment, all designed as an integrated system. LANL is serving as the primary builder and system integrator and will perform on-orbit system checkout, test, and evaluation. The satellites were based on the earlier Prometheus and Perseus satellites. The Prometheus satellites cost less than $100,000 each, are expected to have a service life of three to five years and are demonstrating the capability to transfer audio, video, and data files from man-portable, low-profile, remotely located field units to deployable ground stations terminals using over-the-horizon satellite communications. Each satellite features four deployable solar arrays and a deployable helix antenna. The second generation Block 2 satellites feature several improvements. The solar arrays have been enlarged and the attitude control system has been improved. An star field sensor and a GPS receiver were added. Also they provide the opportunity for hosted payloads, as a 1.5U payload module can be added to each satellite.

• The first two Prometheus Block 2 satellites, Prometheus 2.1 and Prometheus 2.3, flew in November 2016 as a NRO sponsored piggy-back payload on the WorldView 4 mission on a Atlas-5(401) rocket.
• A pair of Prometheus-2 satellites, likely Prometheus 2.2 and Prometheus 2.4, were reportedly launched in August 2017 on the ORS 5 mission on a Minotaur-4 Orion-38 rocket.
• Another pair, Prometheus 2.7 and Prometheus 2.9, was launched in June 2019 on an Electron KS rocket.
• Eight Prometheus Block 2 satellites were to be launched in 2017 as a piggy-back payload on the STP-2 mission on a Falcon-Heavy (Block 5) rocket, but have apparently been removed from this flight. Eventually in June 2019, only one of these satellites, Prometheus 2.6, was launched on this mission, while another was replaced by a dummy satellite.
• One, Prometheus 2.10, was to be launched in February 2020 on the maiden flight of the Astra Rocket-3.0 as part of the DARPA Launch Challenge. But as the rocket was not able to lift off during the challenge's launch window, the payloads were returned to the owners. It was then deployed from SHERPA-FX 1 on a Falcon-9 v1.2 (Block 5) rocket in late 2020.
• Another pair, Prometheus 2.8 and Prometheus 2.11, was launched January 2021 on a LauncherOne.