Storm Chasers of the Future: NASA, Rocket Lab Launch First Pair of TROPICS CubeSats

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Storm Chasers of the Future: NASA, Rocket Lab Launch First Pair of TROPICS CubeSats
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NASA successfully launched the first two TROPICS (Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats) CubeSats on Monday, aimed at studying tropical cyclones. The CubeSats, part of a constellation of four, will orbit Earth's tropics in an incl

Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 1 at Mahia, New Zealand at 9:00 p.m., carrying two TROPICS CubeSats for NASA. Credit: Rocket Labsuccessfully launched the first two TROPICS CubeSats on Monday, aimed at studying tropical cyclones. The CubeSats, part of a constellation of four, will orbit Earth’s tropics in an inclined low Earth orbit, allowing them to monitor storms about once an hour, significantly more frequent than the current six-hour interval.

The first pair of the agency’s TROPICS lifted off aboard an Electron rocket from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 Pad B in Mahia, New Zealand. Team members successfully sent commands to the first CubeSat at 1:48 a.m. EDT, May 8. Subsequently, they established communications with the second CubeSat at 6:31 a.m. EDT.

“Providing more frequent imaging will not only improve our situational awareness when a hurricane forms,” said Karen St. Germain, director, Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The data will provide information to models that help us determine how a storm is changing over time, which in turn helps to improve forecasts from our partners like the National Hurricane Center and Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

NASA announced it selected Rocket Lab USA Inc. of Long Beach, California, to provide the launch service for the agency’s TROPICS mission on November 23, 2022, as part of the VADR contract.

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