John Paul M. Joaquin Science 10.10.2022 09:Oct AM EDT

NASA Is Looking for Another Company To Get Its TROPICS Satellites Into Orbit

NASA wants its weather satellites in orbit, and it wants them to be there soon.

The space agency has recently announced it is looking for another space company to get its TROPICS weather satellites into Earth's orbit before the 2023 hurricane season.

The announcement follows the failed launch of Astra's Launch Vehicle 0010, which was supposed to bring two TROPICS weather satellites into orbit on June 13.

NASA's Renewed Rocket Search For Its Tropics Mission

NASA mentioned in its announcement that its search for a new space company to take its TROPICS weather satellites into Earth's orbit was due to "urgent science needs."

The urgency may be due to the effects of Hurricane Ian, which ravaged Florida and North Carolina in late September. Its imminent impact pushed the launches of NASA's Artemis 1 mission and SpaceX's Crew-5 mission back to November and Oct. 5, respectively.

Another reason why NASA is looking for a new space company to take its TROPICS weather satellites into space is Astra's withdrawal from delivering them to orbit.

The space agency stated that Astra, the space company that was initially responsible for taking the weather satellites into orbit, notified it that it will discontinue its Rocket 3.3, meaning that it would not resume launches before the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season - a period that NASA wants to cover with its TROPICS weather satellite.

Space.com mentioned in its article that NASA will consider 12 of the 13 companies it preapproved under a commercial launch services contract, also known as Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR).

These 12 companies consist of:

ABL Space Systems of El Segundo, California
Blue Origin Florida LLC of Merritt Island, Florida
L2 Solutions LLC of Houston
Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation of Chandler, Arizona
Phantom Space Corporation of Tucson, Arizona
Relativity Space Inc. of Long Beach, California
Rocket Lab USA Inc. of Long Beach, California
Spaceflight Inc. of Seattle
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California
United Launch Services LLC of Centennial, Colorado
Virgin Orbit LLC of Long Beach, California
Firefly Space Transport Services of Cedar Park, Texas

Thanks to NASA's renewed search for a space company, these 12 companies can compete for the rebid of the TROPICS launch services. If successful, one of the 12 will be using their rocket to get NASA's TROPICS satellites into orbit.

Astra is not off NASA's list despite the June 13 incident. The space company agreed to modify its existing launch services contract with NASA for it to participate in the lainch of similar scientific payloads on its Rocket 4.0 in the future.

NASA's TROPICS Satellites Details

NASA's TROPICS mission, which stands for Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats, aims to provide researchers the chance to view evolving tropical cyclones once an hour - a rate more frequent than what is currently possible with the weather satellites in orbit.

The satellites, which were designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory, are about the size of a loaf of bread.

However, they are equipped with instruments that would provide important data about how tropical cyclones form, intensify, and interact with their environment.

They will also give important data for storm monitoring and forecasting.