# @nasa on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/BODC8pzlglZ
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/11736310-nasa-instagram
- **Posted:** 2016-12-15T18:19:15.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA (@NASA) — https://gondola.cc/NASA

## Caption

Launch! Hurricane forecasters will soon have a new tool to better understand and forecast storm intensity. A constellation of eight microsatellites, called Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System mission, or CYGNSS, got a boost into Earth orbit at 8:37 a.m. EST today aboard an Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket.

The unique, air-launched vehicle was carried aloft by Orbital’s modified L-1011 aircraft, “Stargazer,” which took off from the Skid Strip runway at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and deployed the three-stage Pegasus XL rocket at a predetermined drop point 39,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean and about 110 nautical miles east-northeast of Daytona Beach.

Credit: NASA

#nasa #space #cygnss #earth #hurricane #weather #satellite #stargazer #earthrightnow #science

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 168,001
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- **Comments:** 840

## Tags

weather, stargazer, satellite, earth, science, nasa, earthrightnow, space, cygnss, hurricane

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