Two NASA CubeSats designed to study tropical cyclones, including hurricanes and typhoons, are in orbit after a successful launch at 1 p.m. Monday, NZST (9pm EDT Sunday).
The agency’s first pair of TROPICS (Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and Intensity of Precipitation with a Constellation of Smallsats) launched aboard an electron rocket from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 Pad B in Māhia, New Zealand.
Team members successfully sent commands to the first CubeSats at 1:48 a.m. EDT, May 8. They subsequently established communication with the second CubeSat at 6:31 a.m. EDT.
TROPICS is a constellation of four identical CubeSats designed to observe tropical cyclones in a unique, inclined low-Earth orbit above the Earth’s tropics—an orbit that allows them to travel over a given storm approximately once per hour. Current weather satellites have a timing of approximately once every six hours.
“Providing more frequent imaging will not only improve our situational awareness when a hurricane forms,” said Karen St. Germain, director of the Earth Sciences Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The data will inform models that help us determine how storms change over time, which in turn helps improve forecasts from our partners like the National Hurricane Center and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.”
NASA announced that it has selected Rocket Lab USA Inc. from Long Beach, California to provide launch service for the agency’s TROPICS mission on November 23, 2022, under a VADR (Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare) contract.
“Today’s launch service marks the first launch completed under the VADR contract, a significant milestone as we aim to enable greater access to space for science and technology missions,” said Bradley Smith, director of Launch Services for the Space Operations Directorate at NASA Headquarters.
“We look forward to increasing storm tracking capabilities with another launch later this month to complete the TROPICS constellation.”
A second pair of TROPICS CubeSats is scheduled to launch aboard another Rocket Lab Electron rocket in about two weeks. The second launch will be timed to put two more CubeSats into the TROPICS constellation.
“We are extremely proud of all of our partners, including MIT Lincoln Labs, Blue Canyon Technologies, KSAT and Rocket Lab, for making this first launch a success. We look forward to having the entire constellation in orbit to realize the benefits for the agency and our colleagues around the world,” said Ben Kim, TROPICS Program Executive Director for NASA’s Earth Science Division.
The TROPICS team is led by Principal Investigator Bill Blackwell at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts, and includes researchers from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and several universities and commercial partners. The launch service is managed by NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida
