Watch NASA Launch New Hurricane-Chasing Satellites From a Plane-Riding Rocket

Update: The Monday CYGNSS launch attempt was scrubbed due to irregular pressure readings in the hydraulic system of the Pegasus rocket release system, along with poor weather conditions, according to NASA. The launch has been tentatively delayed to Tuesday at 8:30 AM EST.

On Monday, NASA plans to launch a constellation of eight hurricane-chasing satellites from a rocket strapped to the underside of a plane. As if that were not metal enough, once these spacefaring octuplets are deployed into low Earth orbit, at an altitude of 316 miles (508 kilometers), they will unfurl their small 5.5 feet wingspans like birds taking flight, as outlined in this concept animation.

Image: NASA Langley Research Center

Called Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS), this $152 million NASA-sponsored mission was developed jointly by the University of Michigan and the Southwest Research Institute, and is currently scheduled to take off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 8:24 AM EST. You can watch the event live on NASA TV.

The fleet of CYGNSS satellites is designed to provide highly accurate and frequently updated data about cyclones and hurricanes in the tropical equatorial zone, especially those that form off the eastern seaboard of the United States. It will hitch a ride on the Pegasus XL rocket, built by the private spaceflight company Orbital ATK, which will be dropped off at an altitude of 39,000 feet by the L-1011 Stargazer carrier jet. The Pegasus will then successfully fire its three solid-fuel boosters to deliver the satellite constellation to space.

Image: NASA Kennedy

Provided the launch goes off without a hitch, these small spacecraft will orient themselves with the help of direct signals from neighboring GPS satellites. They will measure oceanic winds by picking up the indirect signals of the same GPS constellation, as those relays are bounced off the surface of the sea. Keeping tabs on these scattered signals will help CYGNSS probe the intensity of tropical cyclones more comprehensively than ever before, shedding light on the damage potential of developing hurricanes, high wind speeds, and storm surges.

"Hurricane track forecasts have improved in accuracy by about 50 percent since 1990," claims a NASA statement, "but in that same period there has been essentially no improvement in the accuracy of intensity forecasts."

CYGNSS is intended to bridge that gap with its multi-satellite configuration, which can churn out 32 wind measurements per second across the constellation, over a period of at least two years.

Image:NASA

"This is a first-of-its-kind mission," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, in a statement. "As a constellation of eight spacecraft, CYGNSS will do what a single craft can't in terms of measuring surface wind speeds inside hurricanes and tropical cyclones at high time-resolution, to improve our ability to understand and predict how these deadly storms develop."

Ironically enough, the mission's original launch date was pushed back after Hurricane Matthew made landfall near Cape Canaveral on October 8 and caused some light damage to the Air Force Station. After fixing up the mess, CYGNSS is now cleared for launch, and poised to boost our understanding of the same brand of natural disaster that originally delayed it.

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