NOAA-NASA Team to Launch 1st Joint Polar Satellite System in November

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA have set a November launch date for the first of four polar-orbiting satellites designed to boost weather forecast accuracy.

NASA said Saturday the Joint Polar Satellite System-1 is scheduled to lift off Nov. 10 at 4:47 a.m. Eastern time from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a United Launch Alliance-built Delta II rocket.

Ball Aerospace and Technologies built and delivered JPSS-1 to the launch site in early September after the company finished pre-ship assessments at a manufacturing facility in Boulder, Colorado.

JPSS-1 is equipped with instruments from Ball Aerospace, Harris, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon.

The space agency noted that JPSS satellites are designed to orbit the Earth from pole-to-pole approximately 14 times a day and help NOAA’s National Weather Service predict extreme weather and monitor environmental conditions globally.