Rocket Lab Launches NASA Hurricane Hunter Satellites Written 8 May 2023

SPACE reports that the first two satellites “in NASA’s new hurricane-hunting constellation have taken to the skies.” The two cubesats, the “founding members of the agency’s TROPICS network, launched today (May 7) atop a Rocket Lab Electron rocket, which lifted off from the company’s New Zealand site at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT and 1 p.m. on May 8 local New Zealand time).” The TROPICS constellation (short for “Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats”) “will consist of four cubesats in low Earth orbit.” Rocket Lab will “launch the other two satellites about two weeks from now, if all goes according to plan.”
Full Story (SPACE);  Watch launch (Rocket Lab's YouTube channel).