The second stage is powered by a single vacuum-optimized Rutherford also producing 26 kN (~5,800 lb) of thrust.įor this mission, Electron utilized its kick stage. Each engine produces roughly 25 kN (~5,600 lb) of thrust at sea level and increases to 26 kN (~5,800 lb) in the vacuum of space. The first stage sports nine Rutherford engines, which were the first electric pump-fed cycle engines used on an orbital launch vehicle. Both of Electron’s stages run off rocket propellant 1 (RP-1) Kerosene and liquid oxygen (LOX) and the primary structure is made up of carbon fiber composite. (Credit: Rocket Lab)Įlectron is a two-stage liquid-fueled small satellite launch vehicle that is designed and manufactured in-house by Rocket Lab. This was Rocket Lab’s fifth mission of 2023 and 37th overall for the company.īoth TROPICS satellites undergoing integration ahead of the “Rocket Like a Hurricane” Mission. The mission, “Coming to a Storm Near You,” saw Electron lift off from Rocket Lab’s LC-1B in Mahia, New Zealand. The first batch successfully launched on May 8 on the mission dubbed “ Rocket Like a Hurricane.” The remaining four cubesats need to be launched within a 60-day window of each other due to this, Rocket Lab will conduct both TROPICS launches back to back. 23, NASA announced that the agency had chosen Rocket Lab to launch the remaining four cubesats over the course of two launches utilizing the company’s Electron rocket. In late September, NASA decided to move the remaining two TROPICS launches off of Rocket 3.3 and began searching for a new launch provider. Shortly after the failure, Astra announced the retirement of the Rocket 3.3 system in favor of its more powerful Rocket 4 launch vehicle currently in development. The two satellites subsequently burned up upon reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere a short time later. However, an issue with the vehicle’s upper stage led to an early shutdown of its Aether engine, making the launch vehicle unable to reach orbit. The constellation was originally supposed to be made up of 12 satellites but was later reduced to just seven with the first launch being a pathfinder spacecraft aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-2 mission in June 2021.Īfter the launch of the pathfinder satellite, the first two operational satellites were launched aboard Astra’s LV0010 mission on June 12, 2022, where the company’s Rocket 3.3 was tasked with placing the two cubesats into a planned circular orbit of 550 km. To accomplish this, each satellite is equipped with a 12-channel passive microwave spectrometer that will measure temperature, humidity, precipitation, and cloud properties. The TROPICS satellites orbit in two equally spaced orbital planes and will be able to provide hourly measurements on cyclone activity in the Atlantic and West Pacific regions and will help improve our understanding of how these storms evolve over time as well as improve intensity and direction forecasts for cyclones.

NASA’s TROPICS constellation is made up of five 3U cubesats, each measuring 10 x 10 x 36 centimeters and mass just over five kilograms. Launching from Launch Complex 1B (LC-1B) on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand, this placed the final batch of TROPICS satellites into orbit.

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 into low Earth orbit, the company launched its Electron rocket on the “Coming to a Storm Near You” mission on Friday.

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