Rocket Lab launches second Cubesat PREFIRE satellite

Rocket Lab launched the “PREFIRE and ICE” mission carrying the second and final CubeSat of the PREFIRE mission. The liftoff took place from Launch Complex 1, New Zealand, and comes a week after the first PREFIRE launch on May 25.

Developed by NASA, the PREFIRE mission includes two shoebox-size cube satellites. These will measure the heat Earth radiates into space from Earth’s poles. PREFIRE mission data will help researchers and scientists understand Earth’s ice, seas, and weather effects on climate and global warming.

It primarily looks into Earth’s energy budget, the balance between incoming heat energy from the Sun and the outgoing heat from the planet. The difference between these two decides Earth’s temperature and climate situations.

A lot of this heat generated by Earth comes from the Arctic and Antarctica as “far-infrared radiation”. This radiation is influenced by the water vapor content of the atmosphere, along with the presence, structure, and composition of clouds, which escape into space from Earth’s poles.

PREFIRE data will help researchers to read this far-infrared energy radiation from the Arctic and Antarctic.

PREFIRE-2 for @NASA has been deployed! That’s mission success for Electron on our 49th launch.

The mission to detect heat loss to space from the Arctic and Antarctic now begins for @NASAJPL. https://t.co/hxnsrFfa9c

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— Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) June 5, 2024