Rocket Lab launches two NASA hurricane-monitoring CubeSats into orbit

Rocket Lab launched a pair of NASA CubeSats to orbit aboard the company’s Electron launch system, almost a year after another rocket failed to send the first of the small satellites into space.

The Electron rocket took off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 9 p.m. ET on May 7 for the ‘Rocket like a Hurricane’ mission.

Roughly 35 minutes after launch, the Electron booster deployed the two Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) CubeSats into orbit.

Rocket Lab launches NASA’s cyclone satellites

The…