Rocket Lab TROPICS Timeline of Events for Today’s Launch
A pair of NASA’s TROPICS CubeSats are scheduled to launch today on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from New Zealand. A two-hour window opens at 9 p.m. EDT.
Here’s a look at some of today’s upcoming milestones. All times are approximate:
T-2:00 Launch autosequence begins
T-00:02 Rutherford engines ignite
T-00 Liftoff
L-1:00 Vehicle supersonic
L-1:11 Max Q
L-2:29 MECO on Electron’s first stage
L-2:33 Stage 1 separation from stage 2
L-2:36 Electron’s Stage 2 Rutherford engine ignites
L-3:08 Fairing separation
L-6:52 Battery hot-swap
L-9:27 Second engine cutoff (SECO) on Stage 2
L-9:31 Stage 2 separation from Kick Stage
L-30:06 Kick stage Curie engine ignition
L-32:50 Curie engine cut off
~L-33:00 Payload Deployed
