At 0346 GMT on 26 May a Rocket Lab Electron KS rocket launched itself on a mission for NASA from the Mahia pad 1B in New Zealand. On board were a pair of TROPICS spacecraft: TROPICS SV-03 and TROPICS SV-07. The spacecraft were deployed into a 556 x 537 km orbit at 32.7 degrees inclination.
Animation of TROPICS satellite in orbit. Courtesy: NASA
The Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) are storm monitoring satellites. The first two were lost on a failed ASTRA ROCKET 3.3 launch in June last year. Since then, the Electron rocket has put two pairs into orbit: TROPICS SV-05 and SV-06 and now TROPICS SV-03 and SV-07.
