Month: November 2017

JPSS-1 Marches Toward Launch

Packaged in a protective container, the Joint Polar Satellite System-1, or JPSS-1, spacecraft is about to be mated atop a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket at Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Packaged in a protective container, the Joint Polar Satellite System-1, or JPSS-1, spacecraft is about to be mated atop a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket at Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Built by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado, JPSS is the first in a series four next-generation environmental satellites in a collaborative program between the NOAA and NASA. Liftoff is scheduled to take place from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex 2. Photo credit: NASA/USAF 30th Space Wing

Mission and launch officials for NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1) have convened today at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in preparation for the satellite’s upcoming launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket.

Packaged in a protective container, the Joint Polar Satellite System-1, or JPSS-1, spacecraft is about to be lifted and mated atop a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket at Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Photo credit: NASA/USAF 30th Space Wing

During its time in the Astrotech Payload Processing Facility, JPSS-1 has undergone a series of routine prelaunch tests and checkouts, followed by mating to the Payload Attach Fitting and transport to the launch pad, where the Delta II rocket stood already assembled. The spacecraft then was hoisted into  position atop the rocket. Also installed were a trio of Poly-Picosat Orbital Deployers, or P-PODs, which will deploy a host of small CubeSat payloads after the JPSS-1 satellite is released to begin its mission. The entire payload has been enclosed within the two-piece fairing that will protect it during the climb to space.

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