• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar
  • NEWS:
  • SatNews
  • SatMagazine
  • MilSatMagazine
  • SmallSat News
  • |     EVENTS:
  • SmallSat Symposium
  • Satellite Innovation
  • MilSat Symposium

SatNews

  • HOME
  • Magazines
  • Events
  • Perspectives
  • Industry Calendar
    • IN PERSON
    • VIRTUAL
  • Subscribe

ASTRA Selected By NASA To Provide TROPICS Mission Launch Services

March 1, 2021

NASA has selected Astra Space Inc. to provide a launch service for the agency’s Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a Constellation of SmallSats (TROPICS) mission.

The TROPICS mission consists of a constellation of six cubesats and will increase the scientific community’s understanding of storm processes.

The launch service contract for the TROPICS mission is a firm fixed-price contract valued at $7.95 million. NASA’s Launch Services Program at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida will manage the launch service.

The cubesats, each the size of a shoebox, will provide rapid-refresh microwave measurements that can be used to determine temperature, pressure, and humidity inside hurricanes as they form and evolve. The TROPICS mission’s high-revisit imaging and sounding observations are enabled by microwave technology developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory. These observations will profoundly improve scientists’ understanding of processes driving high-impact storms.

This TROPICS mission overview igraphic is courtesy of MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory.

Astra Space will launch these smallsats on the company’s Rocket 3 from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands with three separate launches over a 120-day period. The TROPICS mission is targeted for launch between January 8 and July 31, 2022, under a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launch license.

ASTRA’s Alameda, California, development and launch site with test rocket firing.

Filed Under: Agencies, Engines / Thrusters, Launch Facilities, Launch Vehicle, Manufacturing, SmallSat Tagged With: Featured

Primary Sidebar

Most Read Stories

  • Intelsat's Bankruptcy Court Postpones Hearing Regarding SES Unfair Practices Claim... Plus, Northrop Grumman's MEV-2 Closing On Target Satellite
  • From Baikonur, 38 SmallSats Preparing For Push To Orbit By GK Launch Services
  • UPDATE: They Go Up So Fast... Rocket Lab Enjoys A Six Smallsat Launch Success...
  • Gilat To Provide The Satellite Network + Thousands of VSATs To Brazil’s Largest Private Sector Energy Company
  • SpaceX Requesting FCC License To Approve Mobile Comms Via The Starlink Constellation

About Satnews

  • Contacts
  • History

Archives

  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020

Secondary Sidebar

x
Sign up Now (For Free)
Access daily or weekly satellite news updates covering all aspects of the commercial and military satellite industry.
Invalid email address
Notify Me Regarding ( At least one ):
We value your privacy and will not sell or share your email or other information with any other company. You may also unsubscribe at anytime.

Click Here to see our full privacy policy.
Thanks for subscribing!