NASA awards options for 2 Joint Polar Satellite System satellites

NASA has exercised options under the Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition III (Rapid III)contractfor two additional Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) spacecraft to be built for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Orbital ATK of Dulles, Virginia, will build NOAA's Joint Polar Satellite System JPSS-3 and -4. The contract value is $460 millionand the period of performance will extend through 2026. The work will be performed at Orbital ATK's facility in Gilbert, Arizona.

Orbital, which currently is developing the JPSS-2 spacecraft, will design, develop, fabricate, integrate, test and provide post-delivery support for the third and fourth spacecraft in the series.

JPSS satellites collect global, multi-spectral radiometry and other specialized meteorological, oceanographic data via remote sensing of land, sea and atmospheric properties. These data support NOAA's mission for continuous observation of Earth's environment to understand and predict changes in weather, climate, oceans and coasts.

NOAA funds the JPSS missions and NASA is the acquisition agent for the flight systems, launch services and components of the ground system.

Related Links
Joint Polar Satellite System
Earth Observation News - Suppiliers, Technology and Application

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

First light for the storm hunter
Paris (ESA) May 24, 2018
As the International Space Station flew over the Indonesian coast of Sumatra on an April night, lightning from a thunderstorm reached the upper layers of the atmosphere and its light show was captured by ESA's latest observatory in space. The Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor, also known as the Space Storm Hunter, is completing its initial tests a month after it was installed outside Europe's Columbus laboratory. The first images and data captured the strong signature of lightning with u ... read more