Astronomers Are Annoyed at a New Zealand Company That Launched a Disco Ball Into Orbit

On Saturday, the New Zealand space company Rocket Labs successfully sent a payload into orbit on its Electron rocket for the first time. Among the objects on board the rocket were two commercial satellites and the “Humanity Star,” a geodesic disco ball designed by Rocket Labs. The Humanity Star is purely an art object, with no real purpose other than looking good. According to Rocket Lab, the “bright, blinking satellite” is visible to the naked eye at night and is “designed to encourage everyone to look up and consider our place in the universe.” Aside from the fact that there are several other bright, blinking satellites in orbit that are visible to the naked eye and actually serve a useful function, Rocket Lab’s gesture is a rare nod to poetry in an industry that is usually pragmatic to the point of fault. More

(Source: Motherboard - Jan 26)