One day of the orbit, drawn on the Earth.
A 525 km sun-synchronous orbit crosses the equator at the same local time on every pass, so the capsule's sunlight, and its temperature, repeat every 95 minutes. The orange line is the last few orbits; the grey is one full day.
00:00 into the day
Drag to turn the Earth. White point: Lake Hart.
Manifest
| Flight | Launch window | From | Days in orbit | Wells open | Formulation lock |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4, Feverfew | March 2027 | Vandenberg | 12 | 9 of 24 | 1 February 2027 |
| 5, Tansy | July 2027 | Vandenberg | 12 | 17 of 24 | 1 June 2027 |
| 6, Comfrey | November 2027 | Vandenberg | 14 | 24 of 24 | 1 October 2027 |
| 7, Lovage | March 2028 | Vandenberg | 12 | 24 of 24 | 1 February 2028 |
Flights are named after plants grown for an eighteenth-century stillroom. Why.
Flight log
Flight 3, Yarrow · 1 to 14 October 2026
Landed 06:14 ACDT on Lake Hart, 1.9 km from the aim point. All 24 wells held between 19.93 and 20.07 °C for the whole flight. Report sent on day 21.
Flight 2, Rue · 6 to 19 May 2026
Rain filled Lake Hart in the week before entry, so the landing moved to the claypan 30 km north. Cassette at the lab 40 minutes later than planned.
Flight 1, Sorrel · 11 to 22 November 2025
Test flight, wells filled with water and a reference protein. The main parachute opened at 2.4 km instead of 3 km. We changed the altitude sensor and the deployment logic before flight 2.
Why it lands on a salt lake.
Lake Hart lies on the southern edge of the Woomera Range Complex in South Australia, one of the largest land test ranges in the world. Japan's Hayabusa capsules came home there in 2010 and 2020 with samples from two asteroids.
The lake bed is flat, dry for most of the year and empty for tens of kilometres in every direction, so a landing ellipse of 20 by 8 km fits with room to spare. The Stuart Highway runs past its western shore, which is how the cassette reaches Adelaide the same day.
When the lake holds water after rare rain, we move the landing to the dry claypan 30 km north. The decision is made 48 hours before entry.