Electron | Coming To A Storm Near You (TROPICS-3)
Launch Successful
L - -- : -- : -- : --
Launch Window
May 26, 2023, 3:30 a.m. - May 26, 2023, 4:40 a.m.
May 26, 2023, 3:30 a.m. - May 26, 2023, 4:40 a.m.
NASA has selected Rocket Lab USA Inc. of Long Beach, California, to provide the launch service for the agency’s Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) mission, as part of the agency's Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicate...
Last two operational (TROPICS-06 & TROPICS-07) satellites for NASA's Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a Constellation of SmallSats (TROPICS) mission. The CubeSats are designed to provide rapid-refresh microwave measurements that can be used to determine temperature, pressure, and humidity inside hurricanes as they form and evolve.
Payloads have been deployed.
Liftoff.
Livestream has started
New T-0.
Delayed 1 day due to upper level winds.
Electron is a two-stage orbital expendable launch vehicle (with an optional third stage) developed by the American aerospace company Rocket Lab. Electron is a small-lift launch vehicle designed to launch small satellites and cubesats to sun-synchronous orbit and low earth orbit. The Electron is the first orbital class rocket to use electric-pump-fed engines, powered by the 9 Rutherford engines on the first stage. It is also used as a suborbital testbed (called HASTE) for hypersonics research.
See DetailsBooster expended on its first flight.
Core will be expended.Rocket Lab is an American aerospace manufacturer with a wholly owned New Zealand subsidiary. The company develops lightweight, cost-effective commercial rocket launch services. The Electron Program was founded on the premise that small payloads such as CubeSats require dedicated small launch vehicles and flexibility not currently offered by traditional rocket systems. Its rocket, the Electron, is a light-weight rocket and is now operating commercially. The company is also producing a variety of spacecrafts and spacecrafts components.
INFO WIKI
Electron, Rocket Lab’s small satellite launch vehicle, launched twice, just ~2 weeks apart from the companies Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New...
A Rocket Lab Electron rocket launched a second pair of NASA storm-tracking cubesats late May 25, six years and three dozen flights after the company’s first orbital launch attempt.
The final pair of NASA’s TROPICS (Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats) are in orbit after successfully launching at 11:46 p.m. EDT, May 25, (3:46 p.m. NZST Friday, May…
Just under three weeks after Rocket Lab launched the “Rocket Like a Hurricane” mission placing two time-resolved observations of precipitation structure and storm intensity with a constellation of smallsats (TROPICS) satellites for NASA in…
On April 10th, Rocket Lab announced the preliminary launch timeline for the two dedicated launches of four NASA’s TROPICS satellites. The two launches are expected to be on May 1st and May 16th 2023, launching from RocketLab’s LC-1A and LC…
A batch of 21 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Synthetic aperture radar satellites for Japanese Earth imaging company Synspective.
Dedicated rideshare flight to a mid-inclination orbit with dozens of small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers…
Chinese classified satellite claimed to be for communication technology test purposes. Actual mission not known.
4 small satellites for LEO Internet of Things (IoT) communication purposes.
Second flight of the KAIROS launch vehicle. 5 satellites for testing various technologies will be on board: * TATARA-1 * PARUS-T1A * SC-Sat1…
Seventh and eighth of a constellation of eleven high-throughput communications satellites in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) built by Boeing and operated by…
Sixth batch of satellites for a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the National Reconnaissance Office to…
GPS-III (Global Positioning System) is the first evolution stage of the third generation of the GPS satellites. It consists of the first ten (known a…
4 X-band synthetic-aperture radar Earth observation satellites for the Chinese Earth observation satellite company PIESAT.