NEXT SPACEFLIGHT

Status

Success

TROPICS Flight 3: Coming to a Storm Near You

Launch Time
Fri May 26, 2023 03:46 UTC

Rocket

Electron/Curie
Image Credit: Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab
Status: Active
Price: $7.5 million
Liftoff Thrust: 224 kN
Payload to LEO: 320 kg
Stages: 3
Strap-ons: 0
Rocket Height: 18.0 m
Fairing Diameter: 1.2 m
Fairing Height: 4.05 m

Mission Details

TROPICS Flight 3: Coming to a Storm Near You

The Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) mission will provide rapid-refresh microwave measurements over the tropics that can be used to observe the thermodynamics of the troposphere and precipitation structure for storm systems at the mesoscale and synoptic scale over the entire storm lifecycle. TROPICS comprises a constellation of CubeSats in three low-Earth orbital planes. Each CubeSat will host a high-performance radiometer scanning across the satellite track at 30 RPM to provide temperature profiles using seven channels near the 118.75 GHz oxygen absorption line, water vapor profiles using 3 channels near the 183 GHz water vapor absorption line, imagery in a single channel near 90 GHz for precipitation measurements, and a single channel at 206 GHz for cloud ice measurements.

Payloads: 2
Total Mass: 19.0 kg
Low Earth Orbit

Location

Rocket Lab LC-1B, Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand

Stats

2023

78th orbital launch attempt

Rocket Lab

37th mission
5th mission of 2023
34th successful mission
17th consecutive successful mission

Electron

37th mission
5th mission of 2023
34th successful mission
17th consecutive successful mission