NASA selects Rocket Lab for PolSIR and TSIS-2 launches
NASA has selected Rocket Lab to provide launch services for both the PolSIR (Polarized Submillimeter Ice-cloud Radiometer) and the Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor-2 (TSIS-2) missions.
VADR contract details
The selections are part of NASA’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract. This contract allows the agency to award fixed-price indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity launch service task orders during VADR’s 10-year ordering period, with a maximum total contract value of $300 million.
PolSIR mission
The PolSIR mission will help improve understanding of ice clouds that form at high altitudes in tropical and subtropical regions. Rocket Lab will launch PolSIR aboard two of its dedicated Electron rockets no earlier than June 2027 from Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand.
- The mission consists of two small satellites, each a 16U CubeSat.
- Each CubeSat carries a scientific instrument designed to measure a specific spectrum of electromagnetic radiation.
- The instruments will determine how the amount of ice in tropical clouds rises and falls during the day and how ice changes connect to larger storms.
- They will also help determine how ice clouds affect sunlight and heat radiation throughout the day.
- The pair of CubeSats will fly in orbits separated by several hours to observe daily changes in cloud ice content.
- This information will assist researchers in making more accurate weather predictions.
The PolSIR mission’s principal investigator is Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Science operations will be conducted by the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The two spacecraft are being built by Blue Canyon Technologies.
TSIS-2 mission
The TSIS-2 mission will measure the Sun’s energy input to Earth, providing critical data for understanding ocean currents, seasons, and weather. Rocket Lab will launch TSIS-2 aboard an Electron rocket in early 2027 from Launch Complex 1 in Mahia.
- The satellite measures Earth’s solar energy input, both total irradiance (the Sun’s overall brightness at the top of Earth’s atmosphere) and spectral irradiance (how that energy is distributed across ultraviolet, visible, and infrared wavelengths).
- The satellite’s two instruments, the Total Irradiance Monitor and the Spectral Irradiance Monitor, are similar to those used for TSIS-1.
- Together they cover a wavelength range that includes 96% of the energy in the solar spectrum.
- While TSIS‑1 operates from the International Space Station, TSIS‑2 will operate from a free‑flying spacecraft.
Managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, TSIS-2 includes instruments provided by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the spacecraft is provided by General Atomics – Electromagnetic Systems.
NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, manages the VADR contract.
Learn more about VADR online:
