NASA TROPICS Mission: Rocket Lab Electron Launch Preparations | Earth Science

NASA TROPICS Mission: Rocket Lab Electron Launch Preparations | Earth Science

TROPICS CubeSats aboard Rocket Lab Electron Rocket: Vertical on Pad

Encapsulation of NASA TROPICS CubeSats in Rocket Lab’s Electron payload fairing

NASA TROPICS CubeSats

A pair of NASA CubeSats will launch from the Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand, on a Rocket Lab Electron Rocket  mission no earlier than May 1, 2023. Teams encapsulated the cyclone-tracking satellites at RocketLab's processing facility. TROPICS is a constellation of CubeSats that will help us better understand tropical storms and hurricanes around the globe. 

The NASA Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) mission is a constellation of state-of-the-science observing platforms that will measure temperature and humidity soundings and precipitation with spatial resolution comparable to current operational passive microwave sounders but with unprecedented temporal resolution (median revisit time of 50 minutes). Each SmallSat hosts a 12-channel passive microwave spectrometer. The primary mission objective of TROPICS is to relate temperature, humidity, and precipitation structure to the evolution of tropical cyclone intensity.

Learn more at: https://tropics.ll.mit.edu/CMS/tropics/Mission-Overview

Credit: Rocket Lab

Image Date: April 26, 2023

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