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ЦитироватьRocket Lab  @RocketLab
We can't wait to launch these spacecraft on Electron and do our part to support this climate change mission Launching NET May 2024.

ЦитироватьNASA JPL  @NASAJPL
Meet NASA's twin spacecraft headed to the ends of the Earth!
Launching this spring, @NASA's PREFIRE mission will help reveal the full picture of heat loss from the planet's polar regions for the first time and improve the accuracy of climate models. https://go.nasa.gov/3wfe3dY

ЦитироватьMeet NASA's Twin Spacecraft Headed to the Ends of the Earth
Feb. 12, 2024
Launching in spring 2024, the two small satellites of the agency's PREFIRE mission will fill in missing data from Earth's polar regions.
Two new miniature NASA satellites will start crisscrossing Earth's atmosphere in a few months, detecting heat lost to space. Their observations from the planet's most bone-chilling regions will help predict how our ice, seas, and weather will change in the face of global warming.
About the size of a shoebox, the cube satellites, or CubeSats, comprise a mission called PREFIRE, short for Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment. Equipped with technology proven at Mars, their objective is to reveal the full spectrum of heat loss from Earth's polar regions for the first time, making climate models more accurate.
PREFIRE has been jointly developed by NASA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with team members from the universities of Michigan and Colorado.
The mission starts with Earth's energy budget. In a planetary balancing act, the amount of heat energy the planet receives from the Sun should ideally be offset by the amount it radiates out of the Earth system into space. The difference between incoming and outgoing energy determines Earth's temperature and shapes our climate.
PREFIRE mission will send two CubeSats – depicted in an artist's concept orbiting Earth
The PREFIRE mission will send two CubeSats – depicted in an artist's concept orbiting Earth – into space to study how much heat the planet absorbs and emits from its polar regions. These measurements will inform climate and ice models. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Polar regions play a key role in the process, acting like Earth's radiator fins. The stirring of air and water, through weather and ocean currents, moves heat energy received in the tropics toward the poles, where it is emitted as thermal infrared radiation – the same type of energy you feel from a heat lamp. Some 60% of that energy flows out to space in far-infrared wavelengths that have never been systematically measured.
PREFIRE can close that gap. "We have the potential to discover some fundamental things about how our planet works," said Brian Drouin, scientist and deputy principal investigator for the mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
"In climate projections, a lot of the uncertainty comes in from what we don't know about the North and South poles and how efficiently radiation is emitted into space," he said. "The importance of that radiation wasn't realized for much of the Space Age, but we know now and are aiming to measure it."
Launching from New Zealand two weeks apart in May, each satellite will carry a thermal infrared spectrometer. The JPL-designed instruments include specially shaped mirrors and detectors for splitting and measuring infrared light. Similar technology is used by the Mars Climate Sounder on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to explore the Red Planet's atmosphere and weather.
Miniaturizing the instruments to fit on CubeSats was a challenge for the PREFIRE engineering team. They developed a scaled-down design optimized for the comparatively warm conditions of our own planet. Weighing less than 6 pounds (3 kilograms), the instruments make readings using a device called a thermocouple, similar to the sensors found in many household thermostats.

Ground Zero for Climate Change
To maximize coverage, the PREFIRE twins will orbit Earth along different paths, overlapping every few hours near the poles.
Since the 1970s, the Arctic has warmed at least three times faster than anywhere else on Earth. Winter sea ice there has shrunk by more than 15,900 square miles (41,200 square kilometers) per year, a loss of 2.6% per decade relative to the 1981-2010 average. A change is occurring on the opposite side of the planet, too: Antarctica's ice sheets are losing mass at an average rate of about 150 billion tons per year.
The implications of these changes are far reaching. Fluctuations in sea ice shape polar ecosystems and influence the temperature as well as circulation of the ocean. Meltwater from mile-thick ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica is responsible for about one-third of the rise in global mean sea level since 1993.
"If you change the polar regions, you also fundamentally change the weather around the world," said Tristan L'Ecuyer, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the mission's principal investigator. "Extreme storms, flooding, coastal erosion – all of these things are influenced by what's going on in the Arctic and Antarctic."
To understand and project such changes, scientists use climate models that take into account many physical processes. Running the models multiple times (each time under slightly different conditions and assumptions) results in an ensemble of climate projections. Assumptions about uncertain parameters, such as how efficiently the poles emit thermal radiation, can significantly impact the projections.
PREFIRE will supply new data on a range of climate variables, including atmospheric temperature, surface properties, water vapor, and clouds. Ultimately, more information will yield a more accurate vision of a world in flux, said L'Ecuyer.
"As our climate models converge, we'll start to really understand what the future's going to look like in the Arctic and Antarctic," he added.

ЦитироватьRocket Lab  @RocketLab
Ready, Aim, PREFIRE  Next up on Electron will be the first of two launches for @NASA's PREFIRE mission, a climate change focused mission to measure the heat lost from the Arctic and Antarctica. 
Launching NET May 22, 2024.

Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/358347.png)
READY, AIM, PREFIRE
NEXT LAUNCH

Mission Name: Ready, Aim, PREFIRE
Rocket: Electron
Launch Date: NET May 22, 2024
Launch Site: Launch Complex 1
Launch Time: TBC
Payload: PREFIRE-1

MISSION OVERVIEW

Ready, Aim, PREFIRE is the first of two back-to-back Electron launches to deploy NASA's PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission.
The two dedicated missions will each deploy one satellite to a 525km circular orbit from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. The first mission – named 'Ready, Aim, PREFIRE' – is scheduled to launch no earlier than May 22, 2024. The launch date of the second mission – named 'PREFIRE And Ice' – will be scheduled to take place within three weeks of the successful deployment of the first PREFIRE mission.
NASA's PREFIRE mission is a climate change-focused mission that that will systematically measure the heat, in the form of infrared and far-infrared wavelengths, lost from Earth's polar regions for the first time. Extreme storms, flooding, and coastal erosion are examples of weather outcomes that are influenced by climate conditions in the Arctic and Antarctica. Once deployed to their separate orbits, the two PREFIRE satellites will criss-cross over the Arctic and Antarctica measuring thermal infrared radiation – the same type of energy emitted from a heat lamp – that will make climate models more accurate and help predict changes caused by global warming. PREFIRE consists of two 6U CubeSats with a baseline mission length of 10 months.
The missions will be Rocket Lab's 48th and 49th Electron launches overall and its sixth and seventh launches of 2024.
o back-to-back Electron launches to deploy NASA's PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission.
The two dedicated missions will each deploy one satellite to a 525km circular orbit from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. The first mission – named 'Ready, Aim, PREFIRE' – is scheduled to launch no earlier than May 22, 2024. The launch date of the second mission – named 'PREFIRE And Ice' – will be scheduled to take place within three weeks of the successful deployment of the first PREFIRE mission.
NASA's PREFIRE mission is a climate change-focused mission that that will systematically measure the heat, in the form of infrared and far-infrared wavelengths, lost from Earth's polar regions for the first time. Extreme storms, flooding, and coastal erosion are examples of weather outcomes that are influenced by climate conditions in the Arctic and Antarctica. Once deployed to their separate orbits, the two PREFIRE satellites will criss-cross over the Arctic and Antarctica measuring thermal infrared radiation – the same type of energy emitted from a heat lamp – that will make climate models more accurate and help predict changes caused by global warming. PREFIRE consists of two 6U CubeSats with a baseline mission length of 10 months.
The missions will be Rocket Lab's 48th and 49th Electron launches overall and its sixth and seventh launches of 2024.

ЦитироватьMission Name: Ready, Aim, PREFIRE
Rocket: Electron
Launch Date: NET May 22, 2024
Launch Site: Launch Complex 1
Launch Time: Launch window opens 07:15 UTC / 19:15 NZST
Payload: PREFIRE-1

ЦитироватьRocket Lab  @RocketLab  ·  May 17
Welcome to the cleanroom 
Twin satellites are being integrated onto twin Electron rockets at LC-1 for @NASA's PREFIRE mission. 
The first launch, 'Ready, Aim, PREFIRE' will lift-off May 22, followed soon after by launch #2 called 'PREFIRE & Ice'.
More info: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/prefire/
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/358751.jpg)   (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/358752.jpg)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/358753.jpg)   (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/358754.jpg)

ЦитироватьPeter Beck  @Peter_J_Beck  ·  May 17
Seeing double at LC-1 today. Twin fairings for our back-to-back @NASA PREFIRE launches.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/358755.jpg)

ЦитироватьMission Name: Ready, Aim, PREFIRE
Rocket: Electron
Launch Date: NET May 25, 2024
Launch Site: Launch Complex 1
Launch Time: Launch window opens 07:15 UTC / 19:15 NZST
Payload: PREFIRE-1

ЦитироватьRocket Lab  @RocketLab
Electron is ready to go to space but the weather says
With a  severe weather system  moving through LC-1 in the coming days, we're now targeting no earlier than May 25th for 'Ready, Aim, PREFIRE' - the first of twin launches for @NASA's PREFIRE mission.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/358777.jpg)

ЦитироватьRocket Lab  @RocketLab
Did you know we're not just providing the launch for @NASA's PREFIRE mission?
We've also supplied the Canisterized Satellite Dispensers that both CubeSats will deploy from once in orbit.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/358778.jpg)

ЦитироватьRocket Lab  @RocketLab
We have the confirmed T-0 for the #ReadyAimPREFIRE launch!

NZST | 7:28 pm, May 25
UTC | 07:28 am, May 25
EDT | 03:28 am, May 25
PDT | 12:28 am, May 25
Tune in from around T-20 minutes to watch live.

ЦитироватьNASA's Launch Services Program @NASA_LSP
Weather is 70% GO for launch down in New Zealand where @RocketLab is set for #ReadyAimPREFIRE sending the first of two CubeSats to the ends of the Earth! PREFIRE will study the planet's heat emissions and its impacts on the arctic regions.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/358885.jpg)

ЦитироватьПогода на 70% ... PREFIRE будет изучать тепловые выбросы планеты и их влияние на арктические регионы.

ЦитироватьNASA's Launch Services Program  @NASA_LSP
#ReadyAimPREFIRE is a Rocket Lab launch of a NASA mission under LSP's VADR contract!
VADR allows LSP to work with emerging launch vehicle providers to deliver high-risk tolerant missions into orbit using less NASA oversight to achieve lower costs.
http://go.nasa.gov/4byKcg3
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/358886.jpg)   (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/358887.jpg)

ЦитироватьRocket Lab  @RocketLab  ·  4h
In just 7 hours, Electron will launch the first satellite of @NASA's PREFIRE climate science mission!
 
Lift-off: 7:15 pm NZT / 07:15 UTC
Purpose: Measure heat loss from the Arctic & Antarctica
Launch Site: Launch Complex 1, NZ
Orbit: 525km LEO
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/358888.jpg)

ЦитироватьRocket Lab  @RocketLab
Electron is vertical on the pad at Launch Complex 1 for #ReadyAimPREFIRE, a climate science mission for @NASA.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/358889.jpg)

ЦитироватьRocket Lab  @RocketLab
The meatball graces Electron's fairing once again
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/358890.jpg)

ЦитироватьRocket Lab  @RocketLab
Sunset at LC-1 as we count down to our 48th Electron launch.
...
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/358891.jpg)

Цитироватьhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7nYAJ4dZP4
Rocket Lab - 'Ready,. Aim, PREFIRE' Launch
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/220777.jpg) (https://www.youtube.com/@RocketLabNZ)  Rocket Lab (https://www.youtube.com/@RocketLabNZ)

ЦитироватьRocket Lab  @RocketLab
The launch director has called for a hold at T-12 minutes for ground winds. We have around 45 minutes in today's window to wait for those winds to fall within bounds
·
And we have resumed the count! The new T-0 is 7:41 pm NZT

ЦитироватьRocket Lab  @RocketLab
Battery hot-swap confirmed.

ЦитироватьRocket Lab  @RocketLab
Perfect Curie burn and payload deployment for @NASA PREFIRE-1!

That's mission success for #ReadyAimPREFIRE, our 48th Electron launch.

Missed the launch? Catch the replay. http://youtube.com/live/m7nYAJ4dZP4?si=l3s_MgLzC5CEjgdN

Цитировать2024-099A    59881   PREFIRE 1                            95.29   97.50   541   524   0.0012132
2024-099B    59882   ELECTRON R/B                     91.85   97.49   532   199   0.0246380
2024-099C    59883   ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B   94.47   97.50   528   458   0.0050280