On (May 7), NASA’s TROPICS cubesats were successfully launched into orbit from New Zealand, marking the first two members of the agency’s new hurricane-hunting constellation.
The two shoebox-sized satellites were launched atop a Rocket Lab Electron rocket, which lifted off from the company’s New Zealand site at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT and 1 p.m. on May 8 local New Zealand time). After about 33 minutes, the Electron deployed the TROPICS cubesats into low Earth orbit, approximately 340 miles (550 kilometers) above the planet.
The TROPICS constellation, consisting of four cubesats, will monitor the formation and progression of tropical cyclones and hurricanes on an hourly basis, with enhanced specificity.Rocket Lab is scheduled to launch the remaining two TROPICS satellites in two weeks, within the same 60-day period required for the constellation to function effectively.
During a prelaunch press conference on April 28, TROPICS principal investigator Bill Blackwell stated that the TROPICS cubesats will provide us with new data that we have never had before, as they will allow us to observe storms in the microwave wavelength region with hourly cadence as they form and intensify. Blackwell hopes that this will improve our understanding of the fundamental processes that drive storms and enhance our ability to forecast and track storm intensity.
Will McCarty, a researcher in NASA’s Earth Science Division who works on the TROPICS program, believes that missions like TROPICS represent a significant innovation leap to supplement much larger weather-focused satellites. In a statement to reporters during the April 28 press conference, McCarty emphasized the “cubesat revolution” and the introduction of new innovations in these tiny, compact sizes. He pointed out that the TROPICS cubesats are about the size of a loaf of bread, demonstrating the innovation involved in this mission.
Rocket Lab operates launch sites in two distinct locations on Earth, including one at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) in Virginia. However, both TROPICS missions were originally scheduled to be launched from MARS, but were moved to New Zealand to achieve an earlier launch date. This change enables the constellation to be operational before the onset of the 2023 hurricane season in the Northern Hemisphere, which begins on May 15th in the Eastern Pacific. The alteration in launch sites did not incur any significant additional expenses for NASA or Rocket Lab.
Rocket Lab’s CEO, Peter Beck, said during the April 28 press conference that they would do whatever is necessary to deliver the spacecraft before the hurricane season, and that included relocating the launch sites to New Zealand. Originally, NASA planned to launch six satellites for the TROPICS constellation. Unfortunately, the first two cubesats were lost in a launch failure in June 2022, which was provided by California-based firm Astra. Afterward, NASA selected Rocket Lab to launch the remaining four satellites.
If the second launch experiences any anomalies, the TROPICS constellation will not be completely useless. According to Will McCarty, researchers from the TROPICS program in NASA’s Earth Science Division, even with only two cubesats orbiting, there is still a lot to learn from the data gathered. Nevertheless, the observation cadence for TROPICS would be affected if only two cubesats make it to orbit. In the past, Rocket Lab has successfully recovered boosters on several flights to make the Electron’s first stage reusable. However, no recovery operations were conducted during the latest launch.
