Published:
May 8, 2023 07:19 GMT
The launch was carried out by the aerospace company Rocket Lab and took place this Monday from New Zealand.
Rocket Lab has successfully launched two NASA TROPICS CubeSats into orbit to monitor the development of tropical storms, as seen in a video shared on the YouTube channel of the American aerospace company.
“Mission accomplished!”the company celebrated the launch on Monday, which was carried out from New Zealand, through a message published twitter account. “This constellation aims to improve the forecast of devastating tropical storms and save lives. We are immensely proud to contribute to making this possible,” he adds.
According to the portal SpaceNews, the Los Angeles-based company is scheduled to launch a couple more such satellites into orbit within two weeks. These devices, equipped with a microwave radiometerwill allow for hourly updates that can help control the formation of hurricanes and other tropical weather systems.
“We’ll get data that we’ve never had before, which is this ability to look into the microwave wavelength region in hourly-paced storms to watch the storm as it forms and intensifies,” said William Blackwell, principal investigator for TROPICS at the Lincoln Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Improve forecasts
He also noted that NASA hopes to improve its understanding of the basic processes that drive storms and, ultimately, improve its ability to forecast storm tracks and intensity.
If the second launch also completes successfully, the POT hopes to have the satellite system in operation for the start of the Atlantic hurricane season, beginning on next June 1.
TROPICS was originally a constellation of six satellites. The first two launched in June 2022, but were unable to reach orbit when the upper stage of the rocket they were on ran out of kerosene fuel and shut down prematurely.
