Naomi Cooper
Rocket Lab USA has deployed the second and final set of NASA’s low-Earth orbit small satellites designed for tropical cyclone and hurricane monitoring.
The CubeSats were launched aboard an Electron rocket from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand to complete the agency’s four-piece TROPICS constellation or Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats that will collect tropical storm intensity data to help improve the forecasting, modeling and analysis of high-impact tropical cyclones, Rocket Lab said Friday.
The “Coming To A Storm Near You” mission is the second Electron launch that Rocket Lab conducted for the TROPICS program.
It follows the “Rocket Like a Hurricane” mission launched on May 8 in partnership with Kongsberg Satellite Services, Blue Canyon Technologies and MIT Lincoln Labs.
