The first in a series of four advanced polar-orbiting satellites launched to space on its third try early Saturday (Nov. 18), turning its watchful eye to improving the accuracy of weather forecasts and Earth observations.
The new Joint Polar Satellite System-1 satellite, or JPSS-1, launched into orbit atop a United Launch Alliance-built Delta II rocket at 4:47 a.m. EST (0947 GMT), lighting up the predawn sky over its Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The successful liftoff came after two scrubbed launch attempts earlier this week due to high winds and boats inside the launch range restriction zone offshore.
"Things went absolutely perfect today," NASA launch manager Omar Baez said after the JPSS-1 launch. "The nation's got another wonderful weather asset up in space."
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in partnership with NASA, operates both geostationary satellites, like GOES-16, which stay in a fixed spot over Earth as they orbit, as well as polar-orbiting satellites, like Suomi NPP, which launched in 2011. Suomi NPP was originally intended to test the technology in store for JPSS-1, officials said at a news conference Sunday (Nov. 12), but it has become a valuable weather and Earth analysis satellite.
"This is huge," Greg Mandt, director of the JPSS program, said during live commentary just after the dazzling liftoff of JPSS-1. "JPSS 1 is part of a national polar orbiting weather satellite program, and we really need this because 85 percent of all the date from our weather forecast models come from this series of weather satellite.We're looking forward to getting good data from this satellite."
JPSS-1 will follow in Suomi NPP's path — literally — by chasing its precursor around in the same polar orbit, boasting "instruments so precise that they can measure the temperature to better than a tenth of a degree from the surface of the Earth all the way to the edge of space," Mandt said during the Nov. 12 news conference. The spacecraft will pass around the globe every 90 minutes.
The 14.8-foot (4.5 meters), 5,060-lb. (2,295 kilograms) spacecraft's five instruments will let it observe Earth and its climate over the long term while also pinpointing immediate weather changes. The satellite's full mission cost, including development and the whole life of the mission, is $1.6 billion. Read more...
The new Joint Polar Satellite System-1 satellite, or JPSS-1, launched into orbit atop a United Launch Alliance-built Delta II rocket at 4:47 a.m. EST (0947 GMT), lighting up the predawn sky over its Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The successful liftoff came after two scrubbed launch attempts earlier this week due to high winds and boats inside the launch range restriction zone offshore.
"Things went absolutely perfect today," NASA launch manager Omar Baez said after the JPSS-1 launch. "The nation's got another wonderful weather asset up in space."
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in partnership with NASA, operates both geostationary satellites, like GOES-16, which stay in a fixed spot over Earth as they orbit, as well as polar-orbiting satellites, like Suomi NPP, which launched in 2011. Suomi NPP was originally intended to test the technology in store for JPSS-1, officials said at a news conference Sunday (Nov. 12), but it has become a valuable weather and Earth analysis satellite.
"This is huge," Greg Mandt, director of the JPSS program, said during live commentary just after the dazzling liftoff of JPSS-1. "JPSS 1 is part of a national polar orbiting weather satellite program, and we really need this because 85 percent of all the date from our weather forecast models come from this series of weather satellite.We're looking forward to getting good data from this satellite."
JPSS-1 will follow in Suomi NPP's path — literally — by chasing its precursor around in the same polar orbit, boasting "instruments so precise that they can measure the temperature to better than a tenth of a degree from the surface of the Earth all the way to the edge of space," Mandt said during the Nov. 12 news conference. The spacecraft will pass around the globe every 90 minutes.
The 14.8-foot (4.5 meters), 5,060-lb. (2,295 kilograms) spacecraft's five instruments will let it observe Earth and its climate over the long term while also pinpointing immediate weather changes. The satellite's full mission cost, including development and the whole life of the mission, is $1.6 billion. Read more...
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