Rocket Lab – Rocket Lab says it has successfully launched the first stage of a NASA mission focused on climate change from the east coast of the North Island. The ship took off from the Mahia peninsula shortly before 7:15 p.m. on Saturday.
It is the first of two satellites that will measure, in the form of infrared wavelengths, the heat lost in the Earth’s polar regions, as part of NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment).
The second rocket will take off in the coming weeks. The mission requires two separate satellites to follow similar trajectories but along different paths to overlap each other every few hours near the Arctic and Antarctica and capture precise measurements of heat loss,” the company said in a statement.
“The PREFIRE satellites are equipped with a thermopile device, similar to the sensors found in home thermostats, to measure heat loss at far-infrared wavelengths that have never been systematically measured.
“This data collected by the PREFIRE mission will help improve climate and ice models and provide better predictions of how the planet’s sea level and climate are likely to change in the future.
“We have demonstrated this back-to-back launch capability for NASA once before with the TROPICS mission and are excited to deliver it once again for PREFIRE. Missions like this focused on climate change are essential to understanding and safeguarding the future of our planet. It is a privilege to support them at Electron.Rocket Lab
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Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck said the company’s Electron rockets had the “unique benefit” of launching “small satellites into precise orbits at precise times.”Rocket Lab
