NASA’s New Climate Mission to Launch Second Satellite

Launch day is here for NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission.

After the first PREFIRE CubeSat launched from Launch Complex 1 in Māhia, New Zealand on May 25, a second satellite about the size of a shoebox waits on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket for liftoff on the mission’s second and final launch.

The launch, named “PREFIRE and Ice” by Rocket Lab, is targeted for Saturday, June 1, at 3:13 p.m. NZST (11:13 p.m. EDT Friday, May 31).

After this second launch and deployment, the two PREFIRE CubeSats will spend the next 10 months operating in asynchronous, near-polar orbits, and help to close a gap in our understanding of how much of Earth’s heat is lost to space from the Arctic and Antarctica. Analysis of PREFIRE measurements will inform climate and ice models, providing better projections of how a warming world will affect sea ice loss, ice sheet melt, and sea level rise.

NASA jointly developed PREFIRE with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and provided the instruments. Blue Canyon Technologies built the CubeSats, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison will process the collected data.

NASA’s Launch Services Program, based out of the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, selected Rocket Lab to launch both spacecraft as part of the agency’s VADR (Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare) contract.

Follow launch updates on NASA’s small satellite missions blog and stay connected with the mission on social media. Tune in to Rocket Lab’s live launch coverage at https://www.rocketlabusa.com/live-stream.

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