NASA used a plane to launch new hurricane-hunting micro-satellites

On Thursday morning, NASA successfully launched a group of eight micro-satellites for its Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) mission via a rocket launched from the belly of the large Orbital ATK Stargazer airplane. And, yes, it was as cool as it sounds.

After attempts to launch were scrapped twice this week, first on Monday and then Wednesday, the mission successfully kicked off on Thursday morning as the Pegasus XL rocket launched and all eight micro-satellites successfully deployed.

The micro-satellites will measure wind speeds over oceans in tropical zones, interacting with a constellation of GPS satellites and passing over the same area of the tropics in quick succession. They will ultimately give researchers a better understanding of conditions that help hurricanes develop and the hurricanes themselves.

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Because the orbit of the CYGNSS satellites will be passing exclusively over the tropics, the data will be more frequent and focused solely on storms in those areas.

The frequency of data updates will also give researchers a fuller view of data throughout the lifecycle of hurricanes and cyclones, which will feed into the mission's overall goal of increasing accuracy in forecasting a storm's intensity.

While everything went according to plan during the launch, NASA is still following the micro-satellites to make sure they're working as planned. So far, contact has been confirmed with the first satellite. The other satellites are expected to follow throughout the day.