Artist's illustration of NPP spacecraft in orbit. Image Credit/NASA
The $1.5 billion NPOESS Preparatory Project mission was off to a successful start early Friday, as a Delta II rocket carrying the spacecraft and five new instruments designed to improve weather forecasting and climate change studies lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base,Calif.
The two stage rocket departed at 5:48 a.m., EDT, quickly rising over the Pacific to the south to settle into a 512 mile high polar orbit.
“The flight went terrific,” said Tim Dunn, the NASA launch director. “Overall, very smooth countdown.”
A Delta II rocket carries the NPP spacecraft into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Photo Credit/NASA TV
The NPP mission represents a collaboration between NASA and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration as part of a new civilian/military effort to provide global forecasting data.
Mission life is estimated at five years but that could change because of the developmental nature of the instruments, said Ken Schwer, the NPP project manager from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Though considered developmental, mission scientists are hopeful NPP will serve as an operational bridge between NASA’s aging Earth Observing System and the newer Joint Polar Satellite System. The EOS includes Terra, Aqua and Aura spacecraft — each launched within the past 12 years to study the atmosphere, clouds, oceans, ice cover and vegetation.
”With NPP we expect to improve and extend our forecast skills out to five to seven days in advance for hurricanes, and other extreme weather events,” said Louis Uccellini, director of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction. “We expect the advanced instruments on NPP to become a foundation for the global observing system that will be absolutely essential for NOAA’s prediction models.”
In a pre-launch briefing, the NOAA official noted the U. S.alone has suffered 10 major events this year that will cost at least $1 billion to recover from. They includes tornado outbreaks, flooding and wildfires.
NPP observations will also improve NOAA’s ability to track ash plumes from volcanic eruptions to enhance aviation safety; monitor the potential for drought and wild fires; measure variations in arctic sea ice; and detect harmful algae blooms and other hazards to fisheries and fragile ocean/sea coast systems, Uccellini said.