Kacey Roberts
A Rocket Lab team has launched into space the first two satellites of a four-part constellation that is designed to monitor cyclone and hurricane activities for NASA.
Along with MIT Lincoln Labs, Blue Canyon Technologies and Kongsberg Satellite Services, Rocket Lab said Monday they performed the “Rocket Like a Hurricane” mission to deploy two CubeSats for the Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats initiative.
TROPICS was meant to study storm formation and evolution as well as provide storm intensity data to scientists in an effort to enhance prediction models to avoid disastrous outcomes.
The second mission dubbed “Coming to a Storm Near You” will bring the two remaining CubeSats into orbit. It is scheduled to launch on another Electron rocket around two weeks after the first mission, which took place on May 8 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula.
