Rocket Lab Launch of NASA Earth Science PREFIRE Mission in New Zealand

Rocket Lab Launch of NASA Earth Science PREFIRE Mission in New Zealand

Rocket Lab successfully launched the first of two NASA Earth science cubesats via an Electron rocket on May 25, 2024. The Electron rocket lifted off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 3:41 a.m. eastern time. It placed a 6U cubesat into a 525-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit. This is part of a NASA mission called Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment or PREFIRE.

NASA’s PREFIRE mission aims to improve global climate change predictions by expanding our understanding of heat loss at the polar regions. The Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment (PREFIRE) will send two shoebox-size satellites into space to study the Arctic and Antarctic. They will be the first to systematically measure heat in the form of far-infrared radiation emitted from those regions.

Earth absorbs much of the Sun’s energy at the tropics. Weather and ocean currents then move that heat toward the poles. This helps to regulate Earth’s climate by radiating that heat back into space. However, the Arctic is warming about three times faster than anywhere else on Earth. This is leading to increased ice sheet melt and sea level rise in coastal communities. The data from PREFIRE will help scientists better understand how Earth’s polar regions respond to climate change and what that might mean for the future.

For more information:

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/prefire 

Image Credit: Rocket Lab

Image Dates: May 25, 2024

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