The Humanity Star: When To See Rocket Lab's Brightest Star In The Sky

The first rocket launch for Southern California-based Rocket Lab was an exciting one, but only a few privileged people knew about the rocket's special payload.

One of the few people who knew was the company’s CEO and founder, Peter Beck, who was aware that in addition to the three satellites Rocket Lab publicized prior to the launch, there was also an extra special item in the payload.

That secret was the Humanity Star, a satellite made of 65 reflective panels intended to be visible from Earth’s surface with the naked eye. “We kept it a secret internally for quite some time,” Beck told International Business Times, who added that keeping that secret was “quite challenging.”

“The first time that Rocket Lab put something in orbit we wanted to make sure that it was something with meaning,” Beck said. The Humanity Star orbits Earth once every 90 minutes and is trackable online for anyone who wishes to see it pass overhead. The best time to see it in the United States will be March, according to a statement.

The panels that make up the spinning satellite give it a blinking effect, different from any star or other satellite out there including the International Space Station. It’s kind of like a disco ball but in space.

Beck called the Humanity Star a personal project but said his hope is that people will look up at the star and look past it, to the rest of the universe. “The whole point is that everybody in the whole world gets to see it and we’re hoping that that will provide some small amount of uniting force,” he told IBT.

Essentially, the satellite is somewhat of a beacon of hope for Beck, something he hopes will get people to think of humanity as a whole instead of the reasons that divide it.

“Humanity is finite, and we won't be here forever. Yet in the face of this almost inconceivable insignificance, humanity is capable of great and kind things when we recognize we are one species, responsible for the care of each other, and our planet, together,” Beck wrote on the Humanity Star website.

After about nine months orbiting Earth, the artificial star will slowly begin to deorbit and when it does it will be pulled down to Earth by the planet’s gravity. When it enters the atmosphere it will burn up, or as Beck put it, “It will die quietly.”

While no solid plans are made yet, Beck called the star, “a one-off mission.”

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