Joint Polar Satellite System spacecraft completes delta critical design review

The Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1) spacecraft recently cleared its final major design review, demonstrating that spacecraft development is on track to provide critical environmental data when launched no later than the first quarter of calendar year 2017.

A four-day delta Critical Design Review (dCDR) of work conducted by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., of Boulder, Colo., was held in December 2012 with representatives from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; NASA Headquarters, Washington; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Washington; and JPSS instrument providers.

"The JPSS-1 Spacecraft team presented a very successful delta Critical Design Review in December at the Ball Aerospace facility in Boulder, Colo.," said Bill Anselm JPSS-1 Observatory Manager. "The JPSS-1 Spacecraft delta review presented the integrity of improvements and upgrades made since then, as well as the status of the overall development. With the success of this review, the spacecraft has now been approved to proceed into implementation."

The JPSS-1 Spacecraft baseline design was established at a formal review in January 2011, and is based largely on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) spacecraft, also built by Ball Aerospace. Suomi NPP was launched in October 2011, and is now being operated by NOAA under a NASA/NOAA partnership to support NOAA's operational weather forecasting as well as NASA's Earth science research.. JPSS-1 will follow the Suomi NPP satellite to maintain continuity of weather and environmental observations.