Nasa, Rocket Lab Update Launch Coverage For Tropical Cyclones Mission

 

The agency's TROPICS (Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats) mission has a two-hour launch window from Launch Complex 1 Pad B in Māhia, New Zealand.

Rocket Lab will provide live coverage beginning approximately 20 minutes before launch. Coverage will air on NASA Television, the NASA app, the agency's situs web, and Rocket Lab's situs web.

A second launch from Rocket Lab will carry two additional CubeSats, with exact launch times contingent on the date and time of the first launch. TROPICS is a constellation of four identical CubeSats designed to observe tropical cyclones from low Earth orbit, making observations more frequently than current weather tracking satellites. Gathering data more frequently can help scientists improve weather forecasting models.

TROPICS will study tropical cyclones as part of NASA's Earth Venture Class missions, which select targeted science missions to fill gaps in our overarching understanding of the entire Earth system.

Full coverage of this mission is as follows (all times Eastern):

Sunday, May 7

Approximately 8:40 p.m. – Live launch coverage begins

9 p.m. – Launch window opens

NASA website launch coverage
Follow countdown coverage on NASA's launch blog for live updates beginning no earlier than 8 p.m. as the countdown milestones occur. On-demand streaming video and photos of the launch will be available shortly after liftoff on Rocket Lab's website and Flickr. Imagery also is available on the NASA website.

For more information about NASA's TROPICS, visit:

https://go.nasa.gov/3h46pJp

SOURCE NASA