rocket lab launch disco ball satellite into the sky, visible from anywhere on the globe

this past weekend us spaceflight startup rocket lab launched three commercial satellites into orbit, a somewhat newsworthy story made more fabulous when you find out they also launched a disco ball satellite into space too. this was the ‘humanity star’, a geodesic sphere measuring about 1 meter in diameter, which the company announced would become the ‘brightest thing in the night sky’.

image courtesy of rocket lab

the sphere hitched a ride on the rocket launch containing the satellites from a remote sheep and cattle farm on the mahia peninsula in new zealand last week. the humanity star is a 3-foot-wide carbon fibre sphere, made up of 65 panels that will apparently reflect so much of the sun’s rays back to earth that it will create a flashing light visible from anywhere on the globe.

the star will orbit the earth every 90 minutes and be visible from anywhere on the globe. rocket lab has set up a website that gives real-time updates about the humanity star’s location allowing people to find out when the satellite will be closest to them, and then go outside to look for it. the startup explains, ‘it was born of the desire to encourage people to consider their place in the universe and reflect on what’s important in their own lives and the lives of humanity as a species.’