Coming To A Storm Near You
Coming To A Storm Near You was a Rocket Lab Electron mission for NASA that launched successfully at 03:46 UTC on 26 May 2023 (3:46 p.m. NZST on 26 May; 11:46 p.m. EDT on 25 May) from Launch Complex 1B on New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula.
03:46 UTC on 26 May 2023 · 3:46 p.m. NZST on 26 May · 11:46 p.m. EDT on 25 May
Disclaimer: This livestream is from a third-party channel and is not an official Rocket Lab broadcast.
Mission State
This mission currently has a dated launch window in the tracker.
The current watch link is from a third-party source rather than Rocket Lab directly.
Launch Updates
-
Payloads have been deployed.
by Cosmic_Penguin Source: twitter.com -
Liftoff.
by Cosmic_Penguin Source: youtube.com -
Livestream has started
by LL2 Source: youtube.com
Updates via Launch Library 2 (The Space Devs).
Name Origin
Pun on the movie-trailer tagline "coming to a theater near you" — "theater" replaced by "storm." NASA's TROPICS CubeSats arrive at tropical storms, monitoring hurricane formation.
Mission Overview
Last two operational (TROPICS-06 & TROPICS-07) satellites for NASA's Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a Constellation of SmallSats (TROPICS) mission. The CubeSats are designed to provide rapid-refresh microwave measurements that can be used to determine temperature, pressure, and humidity inside hurricanes as they form and evolve.
Technical Details
4
kiwisLaunch data cross-checked against Wikipedia.
Was this a jellyfish launch?
UnlikelySun 11° above the horizon at liftoff — daylight, the sky is too bright.
Details
- Unlikely
- Low
- Moderate
- High
- Liftoff
- 3:46 p.m. NZST · 03:46 UTC
- Sunset
- 4:56 p.m. NZST · 04:56 UTC
- Civil dusk (−6°)
- 5:26 p.m. NZST · 05:26 UTC
- Nautical dusk (−12°)
- 5:59 p.m. NZST · 05:59 UTC
- Astronomical dusk (−18°)
- 6:31 p.m. NZST · 06:31 UTC
Twilight times at the pad (Mahia, NZ) for the evening of the launch.
What's a rocket jellyfish? When a rocket launches in twilight, the ground is dark but its exhaust plume climbs into sunlight high above. The expanding plume glows against the dark sky in a jellyfish-like shape.
Space-Object Catalog
| Object | Operator | Built by | Mass | Orbit | Status | NORAD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Electron 37 Kick Stage 2023-073A · Stage | Operator Rocket Lab Ltd. | Built by Rocket Lab Ltd. Kick Stage | Mass 40 kg | Orbit 212 × 219 km · 32.7° | Status Decayed 2025-05-16 | NORAD 56752 |
TROPICS SV03 2023-073B · Payload | Operator Lincoln Labs, Mass. Inst of Technology | Built by Blue Canyon Technologies Cubesat 3U | Mass 4 kg | Orbit 185 × 194 km · 32.7° | Status Decayed 2025-12-11 | NORAD 56753 |
TROPICS SV07 2023-073C · Payload | Operator Lincoln Labs, Mass. Inst of Technology | Built by Blue Canyon Technologies Cubesat 3U | Mass 4 kg | Orbit 185 × 196 km · 32.7° | Status Decayed 2025-09-05 | NORAD 56754 |
Electron 37 Stage 2 2023-073D · Stage | Operator Rocket Lab Ltd. | Built by Rocket Lab Ltd. Electron St2 | Mass 250 kg | Orbit 189 × 207 km · 35.4° | Status Decayed 2025-05-16 | NORAD 56755 |
