TROPICS was originally a six-satellite constellation. “We hope to improve our understanding of the basic processes that drive the storms and ultimately improve our ability to forecast the track and intensity.” “We’ll be getting data we’ve never had before, which is this ability to look in the microwave wavelength region in the storms with hourly cadence to look at the storm as it forms and intensifies,” said William Blackwell, TROPICS principal investigator at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, during an April 28 media call. With four satellites, TROPICS will be able to get hourly updates that can aid in monitoring the formation of hurricanes and other tropical weather systems. The four-satellite system will be able to monitor tropical storm development using a microwave radiometer on each satellite that can collect temperature and water vapor profiles. The kick stage, normally used on Electron launches to circularize the orbit, performed the inclination change needed for the payloads.Ī second Electron will launch two more TROPICS cubesats about two weeks later. The Electron placed the 3U cubesats into a 550-kilometer orbit at an inclination of 32 degrees. The rocket’s kick stage deployed the two Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) cubesats about 35 minutes after liftoff, although that was not confirmed until a ground station pass 20 minutes later. The Electron lifted off from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 9 p.m. WASHINGTON - A Rocket Lab Electron launched a pair of NASA cubesats designed to monitor the development of tropical storms, 11 months after the first satellites in the constellation were lost when a different rocket failed.
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