![]() ![]() It was Rocket Lab's 36th Electron launch and its 16th successful flight in a row. The 59-foot-tall carbon-composite rocket's nine 3D-printed Rutherford engines pushed the booster out of the lower atmosphere before falling away and handing off to the rocket's second stage, which put the craft into an initial parking orbit nine-and-a-half minutes after liftoff.Ī third "kick" stage then finished the job, releasing TROPICS 3 and 4 to fly on their own about 33 minutes after launch. Four such satellites will enable hourly passes over developing storms to help scientists learn more about how storms develop and evolve. An artist's impression of a NASA TROPICS satellite studying a tropical storm from orbit. EDT Sunday with launch from Rocket Lab's picturesque Mahia, New Zealand, launch site. Running about a week late because of stormy weather, the first of the two remaining missions got off to a picture-perfect start at 9 p.m. NASA then moved the four remaining cubesats to Rocket Lab's more reliable Electron in order to get them into orbit in time for this year's tropical storm season. The first two of six planned TROPICS cubesats were lost last year when their Astra rocket failed during the climb to space. ![]() "This mix within our portfolio allows us to maximize the science per taxpayer dollar, and thus do more science than if we only focus on the large missions." "We utilize a balanced mission portfolio that ranges from the really large observatories, like Landsat 9 at around 6,000 pounds, down to the very smallest of satellites like TROPICS at around 12 pounds," Kim said.
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