Time for TROPICS 🌴⁣ ⁣ The first pair of our new shoebox-sized satellites, designed to track intense tropical weather, are now in orbit after lifting off from RocketLabUSA's Launch Complex in Mahia, New Zealand. TROPICS, short for Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats, launched aboard an Electron rocket on May 7 at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 UTC May 8). Teams successfully communicated with each satellite just hours after launch.⁣ ⁣ TROPICS is a constellation of four identical CubeSats designed to observe tropical cyclones in a unique, inclined low Earth orbit over Earth’s tropics, an orbit that allows them to travel over a given storm about once an hour. Current polar orbiting weather satellites provide a return time more like once every six hours.⁣ ⁣ The second pair of TROPICS CubeSats are planned to launch aboard another Rocket Lab Electron rocket in about two weeks. The second launch will be timed to insert the next two Cub...